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THE 

RHYMESTER: 

OR, 

THE  RULES  OF  RHYME. 

A  GUIDE  TO  ENGLISH  VERSIFICATION. 

WITH 

A   DICTIONARY   OF   RHYMES, 

AN    EXAMINATION    OF    CLASSICAL   MEASURES,    AND 

COMMENTS   UPON    BURLESQUE,    COMIC   VERSE. 

AND    SONG-WRITING. 

By  the  late  TOM    HOOD. 


EDITED,    W  rr  H    ADDITIONS,    BY 
ARTHUR    PENN. 


NEW   YORK: 
D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

I,  3,  AND  s  BOND   STREET, 
1882. 


COPYRIGHT    BV 

D.    APPLETON    AND   COMPANY. 
1882. 


1517 

nr 


H 


y 


NOTE 

BY    THE    AMERICAN    EDITOR. 


T  T  is  now  ten  or  a  dozen  years  since  there  ap- 
oc  peared  in  London  a  little  volume  called  "  The 

"^     Rules  of  Rhyme,"  and  signed  by  Tom  Hood. 
■  ^    The  author  of  this  manual  of  versification  was 
c    the  only  son  of  the  Thomas  Hood  who  sang  the 
■^    "  Song  of  the  Shirt "  and  wrote  "  Whims  and 
uil     Oddities,"  who  mingled  smiles  and  tears  all  his 
life  long,  making  a  brave  fight  against  disease 
and  death,  until  at  last  the  latter  won  the  vic- 
tory, snatching  him  from  the  bed  whereon  he  lay 
**  spitting  blood  and  puns."     Named  after  his 
father,  Thomas  Hood  the  younger  took  to  his 
father's  trade,  and  led  the  laborious  life  of  a 
working  journalist  all  his  days.     Proud   of  his 
father's  name,  he  chose  always  to  sign  himself 
"Tom  Hood,"  that  he  might  not  be  accused  of 


47.'J??8 


^  THE  RHYMESTER. 

trying  to  trade  on  his  father's  reputation.  He 
was  born  in  1835,  and  he  died  toward  the  end 
of  1874.  He  began  life  as  a  clerk  in  the  War 
Office,  a  position  he  gave  up  in  1865,  when  he 
became  editor  of  "Fun."  In  the  course  of  his 
literary  career  he  wrote  four  or  five  novels,  of 
which  at  least  one — "  For  Valor  " — was  repub- 
lished in  this  country ;  and  he  edited  as  many 
Christmas  annuals.  In  1868  he  published  his 
first  "  Comic  Annual,"  in  imitation  of  his  father, 
and  so  popular  did  he  make  it  that  it  continues 
to  appear  even  now,  seven  years  after  his  death. 
He  also  wrote  and  illustrated  many  books  for 
children.  As  editor  of  "  Fun,"  he  showed  that 
he  was  also  the  author  of  "  Rules  of  Rhyme  " ; 
he  practiced  what  he  preached,  and  he  neither 
Avrote  nor  tolerated  slipshod  rhyme  and  halting 
rhythm.  While  he  edited  "Fun,"  its  verse — 
comic  or  serious,  pathetic  or  satiric — had  always 
a  high  degree  of  technical  merit.  He  could  not 
make  poets  of  all  those  who  wrote  verse  for  the 
paper;  but  he  could  and  did  make  them  mend 
their  paces  and  mind  their  stops.  He  was  only 
a  minor  poet  himself,  but  he  had  a  keen  under- 


NOTE  BY    THE  AMERICAN  EDITOR. 


5 


standing  of  verse  and  great  metrical  facility,  as 
any  one  may  see  who  considers  the  posthumous 
volume  of  his  poems  edited  by  his  sister,  Frances 
Freeling  Broderip. 

In  the  present  edition  the  American  editor 
has  dealt  very  freely  with  the  English  author's 
text,  treating  Tom  Hood's  "  Rules  of  Rhyme  " 
very  much  as  he  treated  the  "Young  Poet's 
Guide  "  when  he  reprinted  it  as  a  supplement  to 
his  own  treatise.  He  has  made  occasional  alter- 
ations, a  few  omissions,  and  more  frequent  in- 
sertions. The  most  of  the  added  matter  is  indi- 
cated by  brackets,  [thus].  It  has  been  deemed 
inadvisable  to  point  out  in  detail  all  the  minor 
changes,  and  it  is  hoped  that  a  general  ac- 
knowledgment here  will  suffice.  Three  whole 
chapters  have  been  added — one  on  the  sonnet, 
another  on  the  rondeau  arid  the  ballade,  and  a 
third  on  the  other  fixed  forms  of  verse.  The 
brief  dictionary  of  rhymes  has  been  revised,  sim- 
plified, rearranged,  and  somewhat  enlarged ;  and 
to  it  have  been  prefixed  a  few  lines  of  Ben  Jon- 
son's  on  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  rhyme, 
which  seemed  pertinent.  A.  P. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
NOTE   BY   THE   AMERICAN   EDITOR       .  .         3 

INTRODUCTION  (bY   TOM   HOOD)                  .  Q 

CHAP.  I. — VERSE   GENERALLY      .                .                .  -17 

II. — CLASSIC    VERSIFICATION    .                                   .  25 

III. — GUIDES   AND   HAND-BOOKS      .                 .  -34 

IV. — OF   FEET   AND    C^SURA     .                 .                 .  42 

V. — METER   AND    RHYTHM                  .  .      46 

VI. — OF   RHYME                ....  65 

VII. — OF   FIGURES     .                .                .                .  .      71 

VIII. — OF     BURLESQUE     AND     COMIC     VERSE,   AND 

VERS  DE  SOCIETE     .               .  .      76 

IX. — OF   SONG-WRITING                ...  83 

X. — OF  THE   SONNET            .                .                .  .86 

XI. — OF   THE   RONDEAU   AND   THE   BALLADE  QI 

XII. — OF   OTHER   FIXED   FORMS   OF   VERSE  .    105 

A   FIT   OF  RHYME  AGAINST   RHYME   (bY  BEN 

jonson)     .  .  .  .119 

a  dictionary  of  rhymes  .  .  .  123 


INTRODUCTION. 


T  AM  anxious  at  the  first  outset  that  the  ob- 
ject of  this  work  should  not  be  misunder- 
stood. It  does  not  assume  to  be  a  hand-book 
for  poets,  or  a  guide  to  poetry.  The  attempt 
to  compile  such  a  book  as  is  implied  by  either 
of  those  titles  would  be  as  absurd  as  preten- 
tious. 

A  poet,  to  paraphrase  the  Latin,  is  created, 
not  manufactured.  Cicero's  "  nascimur  poetse, 
fimus  oratores,"*  is,  with  some  modification, 
even  more  to  the  point.  In  a  word,  poetical 
genius  is  a  gift,  but  education  and  persever- 
ance will  make  almost  any  man  a  versifier. 

All,  therefore,  that  this  book  aims  to  teach 
is  the  art  of  versification.  That  art,  like  logic, 
is   "  ars    instrumentalis,  dirigens   mentem    inter 

*  "  We  are  born  poets  ;  we  make  ourselves  orators." 


lo  THE  RHYMESTER. 

cognitionem  rerum."*  As  logic  does  not  sup- 
ply you  with  arguments,  but  only  defines  the 
mode  in  which  they  are  to  be  expressed  or 
used,  so  versification  does  not  teach  you  how 
to  write  poetry,  but  how  to  construct  verse. 
It  may  be  a  means  to  the  end,  but  it  does  not 
pretend  to  assure  its  attainment.  Versification 
and  logic  are  to  poetry  and  reason  what  a 
parapet  is  to  a  bridge :  they  do  not  convey 
you  across,  but  prevent  you  from  falling  over. 
The  difference  is  that  which  exists  between 
rexvi]  and  eTnar^j^Tj.f 

This  definition  is  rendered  necessary  by 
the  Dogberry  spirit  which  is  now  abroad,  and 
which  insists  that  "  to  be  a  well-favored  man 
is  the  gift  of  fortune  " — fortune  in  the  sense 
of  wealth,  I  presume — "  but  to  write  and  read 
comes  by  nature " ;  in  fact,  that,  to  be  "  a 
poet,"  a  man  needs  to  be  advantageously 
placed  in  the  world,  but  that  any  one  can 
"  write  poetry." 

*  "  An  instrumental  art,  directing  the  mind  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  things." 

t  "Art"  and  "science." 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

With  this  conviction,  I  have  discarded  the 
title  of  a  guide  for  "  poets,"  feeling  that  there 
is  much  real  poetry  that  is  not  in  verse,  and 
a  vast  deal  of  verse  that  is  not  poetry ;    and 
that,  therefore,  "  a  hard  and  fast  line  "  was  of 
the  first  importance  to  mark  the  boundary  of 
my  undertaking.     Poetry  is  far  less  a  question 
of  manner  than  of  matter,  whereas  versification 
is    purely    a    question    of    form.      I    will    even 
venture  to  say  that  some  of  our  noblest  poems 
are  in  prose  ;   and  that  many  great  poets  have 
been   but    inferior   versifiers.      But  what   these 
last    wrote    has    possessed    qualities    compared 
with  which  the  mere  mechanism  of  their  verse 
is  as  nothing.      The   poet  gives   to   the  world 
in  his  sublime  thoughts   diamonds  of  the  pur- 
est water.     It  would  be  idle  to  quibble  about 
minor  points   of  the    polishing  and    setting   of 
such   gems— they   would   lose   in   the   process  ! 
But  the  writer  of  verse  does  not — and  should 
not — pretend  to  give  us  diamonds.     He  offers 
paste  brilliants ;  and  therefore  it  the  more  be- 
hooves him  to  see  to  the  perfection  of  the  cut- 
ting, on  which  their  beauty  depends. 


12  THE  RHYMESTER. 

The  thoughts  presented  by  the  poet  may 
be  rough-hewn ;  the  fancies  of  the  versifier 
must  be  accurately  finished,  and  becomingly 
set.  Poetry,  therefore,  abounds  in  licenses, 
while  versification  boasts  only  of  laws. 

To  enumerate,  explain,  and  define  these 
laws  is  the  object  of  this  work.  Nor  is  such 
a  task  a  waste  of  time,  as  those  may  be  in- 
clined to  think  vvho  argue  that,  if  one  can  not 
write  poetry,  'tis  absurd  to  try  to  write  verse. 
Yet  versification  is  an  elegant  accomplishment, 
to  say  the  least — "  emoUit  mores,  nee  sinit  esse 
feros."*  But  it  is  something  more  than  an 
elegant  accomplishment — much  more. 

In  the  dead  languages — leaving  in  abey- 
ance the  question  of  classical  versus  mathe- 
matical education — nothing  gives  such  schol- 
arly finish  as  the  practice  of  Greek  and  Latin 
verse-writing,  nothing  such  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge and  understanding  of  the  genius  of  either 
language. 

Were  English  versification  taught  in  our 
schools,   I   believe    the   boys    would    acquire    a 

*  "  It  softens  the  manners  and  forbids  their  roughness." 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

better  understanding  and  appreciation  of  their 
own  tongue.     With  such  training,  a  lad  would 
shrink    from    a    mispronunciation    as    he    does  • 
from  a  false  quantity  in  Latin  or  Greek.      He 
would  not  fall  into  the   slipshod   way   of  pro- 
nouncing "doing"  as  if  it  were  spelled  "doin'/' 
and  "written  and  spoken"  as  if  "  writtun  and 
spokun."      He  would   not  make  dissyllables  of 
words   like  "fire"  and  "mire,"  or   of  the    tri- 
syllable "really."     Nor  would  he  make  another 
mistake    (very   common    now,    as    revealed    in 
magazine  verse  where  such  words  are  put  to 
rhyme,  "  before  "  and  "  more  ")  of  pronouncing 
"ure"  as  "  ore  "—"  shore  "  and  "  asshore  "  for 
"  sure  "  and  "  assure,"  of  which,  of  course,  the 
correct  pronunciation  is  "shewre,"  "ashewre."* 
The  purging  of  our  pronunciation  would  be 
of  general   benefit.     At   present    it   is    shifting 
and    uncertain,    because    it    is    never    taught. 
Surely  the  deterioration  of  our  language  is  not 

*  The  derivation  of  this  vulgarism  is  ancient,  and  not  very 
dignified.  "Sewer"  and  "shore,"  meaning  a  drain,  are,  of 
course,  the  same  word.  It  seems  absurd,  when  we  have  so  few 
vowels,  to  allow  the  distinctive  sound  of  any  of  them  to  be  lost, 
as  it  would  be  in  this  case,  by  the  "  o  "  and  "  u  "  becoming  in- 
terchanged.— (T.  H.) 


H 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


a  minor  matter,  and  when  it  can  be  removed 
by  the  encouragement  of  verse-writing  at  our 
schools,  strictly  and  clearly  taught,  it  seems 
astonishing  that  no  effort  has  been  made  in 
that  direction.* 

However,  whether,  by  establishing  a  system 
of  English  versifying  at  our  schools,  we  shall 
ever  endeavor  to  give  fixity  to  our  pronuncia- 
tion, is  a  question  hardly  likely,  I  fear,  to  be 
brought  to  the  test  yet  awhile.  That  English 
versifying  is  a  strong  educational  power,  I  do 
not  doubt,  and,  in  that  belief,  have  endeavored 
to  render  this  hand-book  as  complete  as  possible. 
I  have  therefore  laid  down  the  most  stringent 
rules  and  the  clearest  formulae  in  my  power. 

Verse  is  but  the  A  B  C  of  poetry,  and  the 
student  must  learn  his  alphabet  correctly.  We 
should  not  allow  a  child  to  arrange  the  letters 
as  he  chose — "  A,  Z,  B,  G,  C  " — nor  must  the 

*  There  is  one  decided  advantage  to  the  public  which  would 
accrue  from  the  teaching  of  versification  in  schools.  We  should 
be  saved  the  infliction  of  much  nonsense,  published  under  the 
name  of  poetry.  For  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  man,  who  had 
been  well-grounded  in  the  mechanism  of  verse  as  a  lad,  would 
think  of  publishing  in  mature  age  what  he  would  know  were  but 
school-exercises  only,  and  not  poems. — (T.  H.) 


IN  TROD  UCTION.  1 5 

beginner  in  verse  dream  of  using  any  licenses 
of  a  similar  kind.  I  should  fail  in  my  duty  if 
I  admitted  anything  of  the  kind  ;  for,  while  it 
would  be  presumption  to  lay  down  laws  for 
poets,  it  would  be  incapacity  to  frame  licenses 
for  versifiers. 

I  therefore  conclude  these  prefatory  re- 
marks by  adducing  the  two  chief  regulations 
for  the  student : 

First.    That  he  must  use  such  rhymes  only 
as  are  perfect  to  the  ear,  when  correctly 
pronounced. 
Second.    That  he  must  never  write  a  line 
which   will    not   sooner    or   later   in    the 
stanza  have  a  line  to  correspond  with  a 
rhyme. 
To  these  I  may  add,  as  a  rider,  this  piece 
of  advice  (somewhat  in  the  style  of  the  whist 
maxim,  "When  in   doubt,  play  a  trump"):    If 
you  have  reason  to  choose  between  tv/o  styles 
of  versification,  select  the  more  difficult. 

It  is  only  by  sustaining  your  verse  at  the 
highest  elevation  that  you  can  hope  even  to 
approach  poetry. 


l6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Be  bold— be  bold— but  not  too  bold  !  " 

And  bear  in  mind  the  words  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney :  "  Who  shootes  at  the  midday  Sonne, 
though  he  be  sure  he  shall  neuer  hit  the 
marke ;  yet  as  sure  he  is,  he  shall  shoote 
higher  than  who  aymes  but  at  a  bush." 

T.  H. 


CHAPTER    I. 

VERSE     GENERALLY. 

THERE  is  no  better  text  for  this  chapter  than  some 
Hnes  from  Pope's  "  Essay  on  Criticism  "  : 

"  But  most  by  numbers  judge  a  poet's  song, 
And  smooth  or  rough,  with  them,  is  right  or  wrong  : 
These  equal  syllables  alone  require, 
Tho'  oft  the  ear  the  open  vowels  tire  ; 
5  While  expletives  their  feeble  aid  do  join  ; 
And  ten  low  words  oft  creep  in  one  dull  line : 
While  they  ring  round  the  same  unvaried  chimes, 
With  sure  returns  of  still  recurring  rhymes  ; 
Where'er  you  find  '  the  cooling  western  breeze,' 

10  In  the  next  line  it  '  whispers  through  the  trees ' : 
If  crystal  streams  '  with  pleasing  murmurs  creep,' 
The  reader's  threaten'd — not  in  vain — with  '  sleep.' 
Then  at  the  last  and  only  couplet,  fraught 
With  some  unmeaning  thing  they  call  a  thought, 

15  A  needless  Alexandrine  ends  the  song, 

That,  like  a  wounded  snake,  drags  its  slow  length  along. 
Leave  such  to  tune  their  own  dull  rhymes,  to  know 
What's  roundly  smooth,  or  languishingly  slow  ; 
And  praise  the  easy  vigor  of  a  line 

20  Where  Denham's  strength  and  Waller's  sweetness  join. 


l8  THE  RHYMESTER. 

True  ease  in  writing  comes  from  art,  not  chance, 
As  those  move  easiest  who  have  learned  to  dance. 
'Tis  not  enough  no  harshness  gives  offence, 
The  sound  must  seem  an  echo  to  the  sense. 

25  Soft  is  the  strain  when  zephyr  gently  blows, 

And  the  smooth  stream  in  smoother  numbers  flows ; 
But  when  loud  surges  lash  the  sounding  shore, 
The  hoarse  rough  verse  should  like  the  torrent  roar  ; 
When  Ajax  strives  some  rock's  vast  weight  to  throw, 

30  The  line,  too,  labors,  and  the  words  move  slow. 
Not  so,  when  swift  Camilla  scours  the  plain, 
Flies  o'er  th'  unbending  corn,  and  skims  along  the  main." 

Johnson  sneers  somewhat  at  the  attempt  at  what  he 
styles  "representative  meter."  He  quotes  "one  of  the 
most  successful  attempts  " — 

"  With  many  a  weary  step,  and  many  a  groan. 
Up  a  high  hill  he  heaves  a  huge  round  stone  ; 
The  huge  round  stone,  resulting  with  a  bound. 
Thunders  impetuous  down  and  smokes  along  the  ground." 

After  admitting  that  he  sees  the  stone  move  slowly 
upward,  and  roll  violently  back,  he  says,  "  try  the  same 
numbers  to  another  sense — 

"  While  many  a  merry  tale  and  many  a  song 
Cheer'd  the  rough  road,  we  wish'd  the  rough  road  long. 
The  rough  road  then  returning  in  a  round 
Mock'd  our  impatient  steps,  for  all  was  fairy  ground." 

"We  have  now,"  says  the  Doctor,  "lost  much  of 
the  delay  and  much  of  the  rapidity."  Truly  so  !— 
but  why  ?  The  choice  of  words  has  really  altered  the 
measure,  though  not  the  number  of  syllables.     If  we 


VERSE   GENERALLY.  19 

look  at  the  second  line  of  the  first  extract,  we  see  how 
the  frequent  use  of  the  aspirate,  with  a  long  sound 
after  it,  gives  the  labor  of  the  ascent.  There  is 
nothing  of  this  in  the  corresponding  line,  where  the 
"  r "  gives  a  run  rather  than  a  halt  to  the  measure. 
But  Johnson  more  decidedly  shows  how  he  was  mis- 
taken when  he  finds  fault  with  Pope's — 

"  The  varying  verse,  the  full  resounding  line, 
The  long  majestic  march,  and  energy  divine." 

His  objection  to  this  is,  that  the  same  sequence  of 
syllables  gives  "  the  rapid  race  "  and  "  the  march  of 
slow-paced  majesty  " ;  and  he  adds,  "  the  exact  pro- 
sodist  will  find  the  line  of  swiftness  by  one  time  longer 
than  that  of  tardiness."  By  this  it  is  to  be  presumed 
he  alludes  to  the  trisyllabic  nature  of  the  first  foot  of 
the  first  line — "varying."  But  it  is  just  that  which 
gives  the  rapidity.  The  other  half  of  the  line  is  not 
meant  to  give  rapidity,  but  "  resounding."  The  second 
line,  by  the  repetition  of  the  "a"  in  "march"  and 
"  majesty,"  gives  the  tramp  of  the  march  to  admira- 
tion. 

So  much  for  Johnson's  objections.  We  will  now 
see  how  far  the  lines  of  Pope  can  guide  us  in  the  con- 
struction of  verse. 

Line  Third  indicates  the  necessity — which  Pope 
himself,  even,  did  not  adequately  recognize — the  neces- 
sity of  varying  the  fall  of  the  \-erse  on  the  ear.  Pope 
did  this  by  graduating  his  accents.  The  line  should 
scan  with  an  accented  syllable  following  an  unaccented 
one — 

2 


20  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  And  smooth'  or  rough',  with  them',  is  right'  or  wrong'." 

Pope  varied  this  by  a  sort  of  compromise — 

"  And  the'  smooth  stream'  in  smoother'  numbers'  flows'," 

would  be  the  right  scansion.  But  the  accent  passes  in 
a  subdued  form  from  "  the  "  to  "  smooth,"  which  pleas- 
antly modulates  the  line,  and  gives  the  flow  required 
for  the  figure  treated  of.* 

But  there  was  another  means  of  varying  the  verse 
which  was  not  in  those  days  adopted.  It  was  not 
then  recognized  that  there  were  some  cases  in  which 
the  unaccented  syllable  might  have  two  "  beats." 
Pope  wrote, 

"  The  gen'rous  pleasure  to  be  charm'd  with  wit." 

Had  he  written  "  generous,"  it  might  have  stood,  and 
would  have  given  a  variety.  And  this  would  have 
saved  the  eyesore  of  such  lines  as — 

"  T'  admire  superior  sense  and  doubt  our  own." 

Line  Fourth  does  not  exactly  describe  the  fault 
it  commits.  "  The  open  vowel  "  is  no  offense,  but 
rather  a  beauty,  though  like  all  beauty  it  must  not  be 
too  lavishly  displayed.  The  fault  of  the  line  really  lies 
in  the  repetition  of  the  same  broad  sound — "  o."     The 


*  An  instance  of  the  contrary  effect  will  be  found  in  Tenny- 
son's line — 

"  Long  lines  of  cliff  brealcing  had  left  a  chasm." 

Here  the  proper  stress  should  be  "  break'ing-,"  according  to 
scansion,  but  the  accent  thrown  back  on  the  first  syllable  gives 
a  sudden  sort  of  halt  suggestive  of  the  fall  of  the  cliff. — (T.  H.) 


VERSE    GENERALLY.  21 

same  vowel-sounds  should  not  be  repeated  in  a  line.* 
This  especially  holds  good  where  they  are  so  associated 
with  consonants  as  to  form  a  rhyme,  or  anything  ap- 
proaching to  it. 

Line  Fifth  points  out  an  inelegance  which  no  one 
with  any  ear  could  be  guilty  of — the  use  of  "  do  "  and 
"  did,"  to  eke  out  a  line  or  help  a  rhyme. 

Line  Sixth  indicates  a  practice  which  those  who 
have  studied  Latin  versification  would  avoid  without 
such  a  hint,  since  the  nature  of  the  caesura  compels 
the  avoidance  of  monosyllables. 

Line  Ninth,  with  the  following  three  lines,  warns 
against  an  error  which  naturally  becomes  the  more 
frequent  the  longer  English  verse  is  written,  since 
rhymes  become  more  and  more  hackneyed  every  day. 

Line  Sixteenth.  The  Alexandrine  will  come 
under  discussion  in  its  place  among  meters. 

Line  Twenty-first  might  well  serve  for  a  motto 
for  this  little  treatise.  If  a  poet  said  1,his  of  poetiy, 
how  much  more  does  it  apply  to  versification  ! 

Line  Twenty-fifth.  Here,  and  in  the  following 
line,  by  delicate  manipulation  of  the  accent.  Pope  gets 
the  desired  effect.  Instead  of  "So  soft'  the  strain'," 
he  attracts  the  ear  with  "  Soft'  is,"  and  the  unexpected 
word  gives  the  key-note  of  the  line. 

Line  Twenty-seventh.    It  is  almost  needless 

*  Yet  this  is  not  all  that  is  requisite  to  make  music.  Brown- 
ing, I  think  I  may  say,  never  repeats  the  same  sound  ;  Tenny- 
son frequently  does  ;  yet  the  latter's  verse  has  a  better  flow  than 
the  former's.  But  this  may  be  the  result  of  other  arts  employed 
by  the  Laureate. — (T.  H.) 


22  THE  RHYMESTER. 

to  point  out  how  in  this,  and  the  next  line,  the  poet, 
by  artful  management  of  accent  and  careful  selection 
of  onomatopoetic  words,  gives  the  required  assonance 
to  the  lines. 

Line  Twenty-ninth.  The  broad  vowels  here 
give  the  requisite  pause  and  "  deliberation  "  to  the 
verse.  In  the  following  line,  the  introduction  of  "  too  " 
— (under  some  circumstances  it  might  well  come  under 
the  condemnation  of  Line  Fifth) — makes  the  line  labor, 
and  the  open  "  o  "  at  the  end  of  the  line  "  tires  the 
ear." 

Line  Thirty-first.  Here  the  poet  gets  the  slide 
of  the  "  s  "  to  give  the  idea  of  motion.  In  the  follow- 
ing line,  by  the  elision  and  the  apt  introduction  of  short 
syllables,  he  repeats  the  notion.  In  my  opinion  the 
artistic  skill  of  Pope  is  peculiarly  obsen-able  in  the  last 
few  couplets.  In  the  first  line  in  each  instance  the 
effect  is  produced  by  the  use  of  a  different  artifice 
from  that  employed  in  the  second. 

These  rules  were  of  course  intended  by  Pope  to 
apply  only  to  the  measure  called  "  heroic,"  i.  e.,  deca- 
syllabic verse.  But,  mutatis  mutandis,  they  will  be 
equally  applicable  to  general  verse. 

Coleridge,  in  his  "  Christabel,"  struck  out  what  he 
considered  a  new  meter,  which  he  describes  as  "not, 
properly  speaking,  irregular,  though  it  may  seem  so 
from  its  being  founded  on  a  new  principle :  namely, 
that  of  counting  in  each  line  the  accents,  not  the  sylla- 
bles. Though  the  latter  may  vary  from  seven  to 
twelve,  yet  in  each  line  the  accents  will  be  found  to  be 
only  four."     This  was  a  decided  step  in  the  right  direc- 


VERSE   GENERALLY.  23 

tion,  being  in  truth  a  recognition  of  the  principle  that 
measure  in  English  was  not  exhausted — was,  indeed, 
hardly  satisfied  — by  the  old  rule  of  thumb;  that,  in 
short,  it  needed  a  compromise  between  accetit  and 
quatittty. 

Southey,  in  his  "  Thalaba,"  essayed  a  new  style  of 
versification,  of  which  he  writes  as  follows  : 

"  It  were  easy  to  make  a  parade  of  learning  by  enu- 
merating the  various  feet  which  it  admits  ;  it  is  only 
needful  to  observe  that  no  two  lines  are  employed  in 
sequence  which  can  be  read  into  one.  Two  six- 
syllable  lines  (it  will  perhaps  be  answered)  compose 
an  Alexandrine;  the  truth  is,  that  the  Alexandrine, 
when  harmonious,  is  composed  of  two  six-syllable 
lines.  One  advantage  this  meter  assuredly  possesses  ; 
the  dullest  reader  can  not  distort  it  into  discord.  .  .  . 
I  do  not  wish  the  improvisatore  time,  but  something 
that  denotes  the  sense  of  harmony;  something  like 
the  accent  of  feeling ;  like  the  tone  which  every  poet 
necessarily  gives  to  poetry."  Of  course,  by  "six  syl- 
lables "  Southey  means  "  six  feet."  He  was  evidently 
struggling  for  emancipation  from  the  old  rule  of  thumb. 

[After  Southey  and  Coleridge  came  Edgar  Allen 
Poe,  who  went  a  step  further,  and  in  his  essay  on  the 
"  Rationale  of  Verse  "  pointed  out  the  path  of  true 
progress  and  indicated  the  only  way  in  which  we  could 
hope  to  get  light  on  the  meters  and  rhythms  of  the 
past.  Poe's  essay  should  be  attentively  studied  by  all 
who  wish  to  understand  the  mechanism  of  verse.] 

Of  late  many  eccentricities  of  versification  have 
been  attempted  after  the  manner  of  Mr.  Whitman,  but 


24  THE  RHYMESTER. 

for  these,  like  the  Biblical  echo  of  Mr.  Tupper's  muse, 
there  seem  to  be  no  perceptible  rules,  even  should  it 
be  desirable  to  imitate  them. 

I  would  here  add  a  few  words  of  advice  to  those 
who,  by  the  study  of  our  greatest  writers,  would  en- 
deavor to  improve  their  own  style.  For  smoothness  I 
should  say  Waller,  in  preference  even  to  Pope,  because 
the  former  wrote  in  far  more  various  measures,  and 
may  challenge  comparison  with  Pope,  on  Pope's  own 
ground,  with  "  The  Ode  to  the  Lord  Protector,"  in 
decasyllabic  verse.  For  music — "  lilt  "  is  an  expressive 
word  that  exactly  conveys  what  I  mean — they  can  not 
do  better  than  choose  Herrick.  Add  to  these  two 
George  Herbert,  and  I  think  the  student  will  have  a 
valuable  guide  in  small  space.  [Add,  also,  Longfellow, 
who  is  a  master  of  meters  and  whose  verse  has  a  sing- 
ing simplicity  equaled  only  by  Heine's— if  by  his.] 


CHAPTER  II. 

CLASSIC   VERSIFICATION. 

IT  was  once  thought  that  the  best  and  easiest  way  of 
learning  Enghsh  grammar  was  through  the  Latin. 
That  English  versification  can  not  be  similarly  acquired 
through  the  Latin  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Latin  sys- 
tem depends  on  quantity,  and  the  English  chiefly  on 
accent  and  rhyme.  Nevertheless,  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  the  classic  measures  will  prove  useful  to  the  stu- 
dent of  English  verse.  In  the  absence  of  all  teaching 
of  English  versification  at  our  schools,  they  have  done 
good  service  in  giving  our  boys  some  insight  into  the 
structure  of  verse. 

The  structure  of  Latin  and  Greek  verse  depends  on 
the  quantity — the  length  or  shortness  expressed  by  the 
forms  —  v^.  A  long  syllable  is  equal  in  duration  to  two 
short  syllables,  which  may  therefore  take  its  place  (as 
it  may  take  theirs)  in  certain  positions.  The  combina- 
tions of  syllables  are  called  feet,  of  which  there  are 
about  nine-and-twenty.  Seven  of  the  most  common 
are  here  given  : 


Spondee    

Trochee    —  ^ 


Iambus  ^  — 
Dactyl  —  v^  v^ 
Amphibrach  v_/  — 


Anapsest         v^  w  — 
Amphimaccr  —  w  — 


26  THE  RHYMESTER. 

[In  a  "  Lesson  for  a  Boy,"  written  for  his  son  Der- 
went,  Coleridge  has  described  and  exemplified  these 
feet  in  English  : 

"  Trochee  trips  from  long  to  short ; 
From  long  to  long  in  solemn  sort 
Slow  Spondee  stalks  ;  strong  foot  !  yet  ill  able 
Ever  to  come  up  with  Dactyl  trisyllable ; 
Iambics  march  from  short  to  long  ; 
With  a  leap  and  a  bound  the  swift  Anapests  throng  ; 
One  syllable  long,  with  a  short  at  each  side, 
Amphibrachy  hastes  with  a  stately  stride  ; 
First  and  last  being  long,  middle  short,  Amphimacer 
Strikes    his  thundering   hoofs,   like  a  proud    high-bred 
racer."] 

Of  the  styles  of  verse  produced  by  combinations  of 
these  feet  the  most  important  are  the  Heroic,  or  Hexa- 
meter ;  the  Elegiac,  alternate  Hexameters  and  Pen- 
tameters ;  and  the  Dramatic  or  Iambic.  All  others 
may  be  classed  as  Lyrics. 

The  Caesura  (division)  is  the  separation  of  each 
verse  into  two  parts  by  the  ending  of  a  word  in  the 
middle  of  a  certain  foot.*  It  may  be  here  noted  that 
this  principle  (the  ending  of  a  word  in  the  middle 
of  a  foot)  applies  generally  to  the  verse,  it  being 
an  inelegance  to  construct  lines  of  words  of  which 
each  constitutes  a  foot.  The  well-known  line  of  Vir- 
gil, marked  to  show  the  feet,  will  explain  this  at  a 
glance — 

"  Arma  vi|rumque  ca|no  ||  Trojjse  qui  |  primus  ab  |  oris." 
*  The  cassura  in  some  cases  falls  at  the  end  of  the  foot. — (T.  H.) 


CLASSIC    VERSIFICATION. 


27 


In  this  the  csesura  occurs  in  the  third  foot,  between 
ca7io  and  Trojce.  But  in  no  case  is  one  foot  composed 
of  one  word  only. 

The  Hexameter  line  consists  of,  practically,  five 
dactyls  and  a  spondee  or  trochee.  A  spondee  may 
take  the  place  of  each  of  the  first  four  dactyls — and 
sometimes,  but  very  rarely,  of  the  fifth.  The  caesura 
falls  in  the  third  foot  at  the  end  of  the  first — and  some- 
times at  the  end  of  the  second — syllable  of  the  dactyl. 
In  some  cases  it  is  in  the  fourth  foot,  after  the  first  syl- 
lable. The  last  word  in  the  line  should  be  either  a 
dissyllable  or  trisyllable. 

The  Pentameter  is  never  used  alone,  but,  with  an 
Hexameter  preceding  it  in  the  distich,  forms  Elegiac 
Verse.  It  consists  of  two  parts,  divided  by  a  cssura, 
each  part  composed  of  two  dactyls  (interchangeable 
with  spondees)  and  a  long  syllable.*  The  last  place  in 
the  line  should  be  occupied  by  a  dissyllabic  word— at 
least  it  should  not  be  a  monosyllable  or  trisyllable. 

The  Iambic  is  most  commonly  used  in  a  six-foot 
line  of  iambics  (the  trimeter  iambic ;  see  the  note  on 
last  paragraph).  In  the  first,  third,  and  fifth  place  a 
spondee  may  be  substituted,  and  there  are  other  li- 
censes which  we  need  not  here  enter  upon,  as  the 
measure  is  not  of  much  importance  for  our  purposes. 
The  caesura  occurs  in  the  third  or  fourth  foot. 

*  The  name  Pentameter  {five-ioot)  is  derived  from  the  long 
syllables  being  incomplete  feet,  and  counting  together  as  one,  so 
as  to  make  five  with  the  four  dactyls.  In  anapsestics  and  iam- 
bics the  meter  is  a  dipod,  i.  e.,  it  includes  two  feet,  so  that  cin 
iambic  dimeter,  contains  not  two  but  four  iambics. — (T.  H.) 


28  THE  RHYMESTER. 

The  Lyrics  are,  as  a  rule,  compound  verses  ;  differ- 
ent sorts  of  feet  enter  into  the  formation  of  the  lines  ; 
and  the  stanzas  consist  of  lines  of  different  kinds,  and 
are  styled  strophes. 

The  chief  of  the  lyric  measures  are  the  Sapphic 
and  Alcaic. 

The  Sapphic  is  a  combination  of  three  Sapphic 
verses  with  an  Adonic. 

Lines  1,2,  3,  — v^| |_||v_,^|_^j_i=i 

Line  4,  —  ww  | 

The  double  line  represents  the  caesura,  which  in  rare 
instances  falls  a  syllable  later. 

The  Alcaic  is,  like  the  Sapphic,  a  four-line  stanza. 
Its  scheme  is  : 


Lines  i  and  2,  —  —  |  ^  —  |  — 
Lines,  ^-1  ^-1- 

Line  4,  — v^v^|— v^^|— v_/|— ^ 

That  is  to  say,  it  consists  of  two  eleven-syllable,  one 
nine-syllable,  and  one  ten-syllable  Alcaic  lines  (Alcaici 
hendeka-,  ennea-,  and  deka-syllabici).  Much  of  the 
success  of  the  stanza  depends  on  the  f^ow  of  the  third 
line,  which,  according  to  the  best  models,  should  con- 
sist of  three  trisyllables  (or  equivalent  combinations, 
e.  g.,  a  dissyllable  noun  with  its  monosyllabic  preposi- 
tion). 

When  it  is  stated  that  Horace  wrote  in  four-  or 
five-and-twenty  lyric  measures,  it  will  be  obvious  that 
I  can  not  exhaust,  or  attempt  to  exhaust,  the  list  of 
measures  in  a  work  like  this.  The  reader  will  have 
acquired  some  notion  of  the  nature  of  classic  versifica- 


CLASSIC    VERSIFICATION. 


29 


tion,  from  what  I  have  stated  of  Latin  composition  ap- 
plying with  unimportant  differences  to  Greek.  Those 
who  have  the  leisure  or  the  inclination  might  do  worse 
than  study  Greek  and  Latin  poetiy,  if  only  to  see  if 
they  can  suggest  no  novelties  of  meter.  I  can  recall 
no  English  verse  that  reproduces  Horace's  musical 
measure  : 

"  Miserar'  est  |  nequ'  amorl  dare  ludum  |  neqiie  dulci 
Mala  vino — laver'  aut  exjaniman  |  metuentes 
PatruSe  veribera  linguie." 

[Poe  rebelled  against  accepted  principles  of  classic 
prosody.  In  his  essay  on  the  "  Rationale  of  Verse  " 
he  declared  that  "  employing  from  among  the  numerous 
ancient  feet  the  spondee,  the  trochee,  the  iambus,  the 
anapaest,  the  dactyl,  and  the  csesura  alone,"  he  engaged 
"  to  scan  correctly  any  of  the  Horatian  rhythms,  or  any 
true  rhythm  that  human  ingenuity  can  conceive."  He 
denounces  all  the  classic  feet  save  those  just  named, 
and  even  denies  their  existence  "  except  in  the  brains 
of  the  scholiasts.] 

Greek  verse  seems  a  less  promising  field  than  Latin 
at  a  first  glance.  But  one  of  the  choruses  in  Aristo- 
phanes's  "  Plutus  "  has  an  exact  echo  in  English  verse- 

"  Sj'Spes  (^(\o(  KOI  Srifidrai  /cit  tov  trovfiv  ipacrrdi," 
may  fairly  run  in  a  curricle  with 
"  A  captain  bold  of  Halifax  who  lived  in  country  quarters." 

The  great  difficulty  of  finding  a  corresponding 
measure  in  English  for  Latin  or  Greek  verse,  on  the 
accepted  theory  that  the  English  acute  accent  answers 
to  the  Latin  long  quantity,  and  the  grave  accent  to  the 


30  THE   RHYMESTER. 

short,  will  be  found  in  the  spondee.  We  have  no  means 
of  replacing  the  two  longs  in  juxtaposition,  and  are 
compelled  to  find  refuge  in  what,  according  to  the  ac- 
cent-quantity theory,  is  either  an  iamb  or  a  trochee. 

I  subjoin  the  following  attempts  to  render  a  few 
Latin  meters,  commencing  with  a  translation  of  the 
Horatian  measure  just  alluded  to  : 
"  Hapless  lasses  who  in  glasses  may  not  drown  those  pangs 

of  passion, 
Or  disclose  its  bitter  woes,  it's— so  they  tell  you— not  the 

fashion." 

Yet  this,  in  spite  of  the  sub-rhymes  which  give  the 
swing  of  the  lonicus  (  w  v^  -'-  )  may  well  be  read  as  a 
succession  of  trochees— that  is  to  say,  according  to  the 
quantity-accent  system. 

Here  is  an  attempt  at  the  Sapphic  : 
'  *  Never — ah  me — now,  as  in  days  aforetime 
Rises  o'ervvhelming  memory — 't  is  banish'd  ! 
Scenes  of  loved  childhood,  can  not  ye  restore  time, 
Though  it  has  vanish'd  ?  " 

The  Alcaic  measure  is  essayed  in  the  following  : 
"  Ah  woe  !  the  men  who  gallantly  sallying 
Strode  forth  undaunted,  rapidly  rallying — 
No  longer  advancing  attack-ward, 
Rush'd  a  disorderly  tumult  backward." 

In  these,  again,  the  difficulty  of  exactly  replacing  quan- 
tity by  accident  is  great— if  not  insurmountable.  Hence 
it  is  that,  as  a  rule,  the  attempts  at  giving  the  exact 
reproductions  of  Latin  measures  have  failed.  Never- 
theless, I  believe  that  corresponding  measures,  suitable 


CLASSIC    VERSIFICATION.  31 

to  the  genius  of  our  language,  may  be  suggested  by  a 
study  of  the  classics. 

The  often-quoted  lines  of  Coleridge  on  the  hexame- 
ter and  pentameter  appear  to  me  faulty  : 
"  In  the  hex|ameter  |  rises  ||  the  |  fountain's  |  silvery  |  col- 
umn— 
In  the  pen|tameter  ]  aye  ||  falling  in  |  melody  |  back." 

The  first  feet  of  both  lines  are  less  dactyls  than  ana- 
psests.  The  caesura  of  the  first  line  is  not  the  "  worth- 
ier" caesura.  In  the  second  line  the  monosyllable  is 
inadmissible  in  the  last  place.  [Better  are  the  lines  of 
Coleridge  in  which  the  Homeric  hexameter  is  described 
and  exemplified  : 

"  Strongly  it  bears  us  along  in  swelling  and  limitless  bil- 
lows— 
Nothing  before  and  nothing  behind  but  the  sky  and  the 
ocean."] 

Here  I  may  as  well  point  out  what  seems  to  me  to 
be  a  difficulty  of  English  versification  which  has  given 
much  trouble.  The  substitution  of  accent  for  quantity 
is  not  all  that  is  required  to  make  the  best  verse. 
Quantity  enters  into  the  consideration  too.  A  com- 
bination of  consonants,  giving  an  almost  imperceptible 
weight  to  the  vowel  preceding  them,  goes  far  to  dis- 
qualify it  for  a  place  as  an  unaccented  syllable.  To 
my  thinking  "  rises  a  "  would  be  a  better  English  dac- 
tyl than  "rises  the,"  and  "falls  it  in"  than  "'falling 
in."  But  no  agglomeration  of  consonants  can  make 
such  a  syllable  accented.  Two  lines  from  Coleridge's 
"  Mahomet  "  will  evidence  this  : 


32  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Huge  wasteful  1  empires  |  founded  and  |  hallowed  |  slow 
perselcution, 
Soul-wither  I  ing  but  |  crush'd  the  |  blasphemous  |  rites  of 
the  I  Pagan." 

"  Huge  wasteful "  is  not  a  dactyl,  and  "  ing  but "  is 
certainly  not  a  spondee — nor  is  "  crushed  the."  "  Hal- 
lowed," by  force  of  the  broad  "  o,"  is  almost  perfect  as 
a  spondee,  on  the  other  hand;  as  is  " empires "  also. 
Longfellow,  in  his  "  Evangeline,"  has,  perhaps,  done 
the  best  that  can  be  done  to  give  an  exact  rendering  of 
the  Latin  hexameter  ;  but  Tennyson,  in  portions  of 
"  Maud,"  has  caught  its  spirit,  and  transfused  it  into 
an  English  form.  No  poet,  indeed,  has  done  so  much 
as  the  Laureate  to  introduce  new  or  revive  old  forms 
of  versification,  and  enrich  the  language  with  musical 
measure. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  here  that  the  classic  poets 
did  not  forget  the  use  of  the  maxim  which  Pope  ex- 
presses in  the  line — 

"  The  sound  must  seem  an  echo  to  the  sense." 

In  this  they  were  greatly  assisted  by  the  use  of  the 
quantity,  which  enabled  them  the  more  readily  to  give 
rapidity  or  weight  to  their  lines.  Nothing  could  more 
admirably  represent  a  horse's  gallop  than  the  beat  of 
the  words — 
"  Quadrupedante  putrem  sonittu  quatit  ungula  campum." 

The  unwieldiness  of  the  Cyclops  is  splendidly  shad- 
owed in  the  line — 

"  Monstrum,  horrendum,  informe,  ingens  cui  lumen  ademp- 
tum." 


CLASSIC    VERSIFICATION.  33 

And  again  the  beat  of  the  Cyclopean  hammers  is  well 
imitated  in  the  verse — 

"  lUi  inter  sese  magna  vi  brachia  tollunt." 

Too  much  stress  may  easily  be  laid  on  this  adornment, 
and  some  poets  have  carried  it  to  excess.  But  the  be- 
ginner in  verse  will  do  well  not  to  overlook  it. 

Note. — The  Poet  Laureate,  whose  mastery  of  meter  is  re- 
markable, has  given  us  alcaics  in  his  lines  to  Milton — 

"  Oh,  mightj'-mouth'd  inventor  of  harmonies. 
Oh,  skill'd  to  sing  of  time  and  eternity, 
God-gifted  organ-voice  of  England — 
Milton,  a  name  to  resound  for  ages." 

I  would  especially  commend  to  those  whom  these  remarks  have 
interested  in  any  way  the  perusal,  with  a  view  to  this  particular 
object,  of  "Father  Prout's  Reliques."— (T.  H.) 


CHAPTER   III. 

GUIDES   AND   HAND-BOOKS. 

THE  earliest  hand-book  of  verse  appears  to  be  that 
of  Bysshe,  who  is,  by  the  way,  described  in  the 
British  Museum  Catalogue  as  "  the  Poet."  The  entry 
is  the  only  ground  I  can  find  for  so  describing  him. 
He  is,  however,  amusingly  hard  on  simple  versifiers : 
"  Such  Debasers  of  Rhyme,  and  Dablers  in  Poetry 
would  do  well  to  consider  that  a  Man  would  justly  de- 
serve a  higher  Esteem  in  the  World  by  being  a  good 
Mason  or  Shoe-Maker,  than  by  being  an  indifferent  or 
second-Rate  Poet."  Furthermore,  with  touching  mod- 
esty, he  says,  "  I  pretend  not  by  the  following  sheets 
to  teach  a  man  to  be  a  Poet  in  Spight  of  Fate  and 
Nature." 

His  dictionary  of  rhymes  is  better  than  those  of  his 
successors— perhaps  I  should  say  "  that  "  of  his  suc- 
cessors, for  Walker's  has  been  repeated  with  all  its 
errors,  or  nearly  all,  in  every  subsequent  hand-book. 
Bysshe  is  to  be  praised  for  setting  his  face  against  what 
Walker  styles  "  allowable  "  rhymes,  such  as  "  haste  " 
and  "  feast."  He,  however,  seems  to  have  been  curi- 
ously ignorant  of  the  ever-changing  nature  of  English 


GUIDES  AND  HAND-BOOKS.  35 

pronunciation.  When  Pope  rhymed  "  line  "  and  "join," 
and  "  obey  "  and  "  tea,"  it  was  the  fashion  to  pronounce 
"join"  as  "jine"  and  "tea"  as  "tay." 

Bysshe's  theory  of  verse  was  "  the  seat  of  the  ac- 
cent, and  the  pause,"  as  distinguished  from  quantity — 
that  is,  it  depended  on  the  number  of  syllables.  As  a 
result  of  this  undivided  devotion,  he  misses  much  of 
the  power  to  be  attained  by  making  the  sound  the  echo 
of  the  sense,  as  Pope  puts  it.  He  proposes  to  alter  a 
line  of  Dryden's  from 

"  But  forced,  harsh,  and  uneasy  unto  all," 
into 

"  But  forced  and  harsh,  uneasy  unto  all." 

One  would  fancy  the  merest  tyro  would  see  the  inten- 
tional harshness  of  the  line  as  Drj'den  wrote  it,  and  its 
utter  emasculation  as  Bysshe  re-forms  it. 

Bysshe  is  strongly  in  favor  of  clipping  syllables,  a 
veiy  pitiable  error,  for  the  chief  drawback  of  English 
as  a  poetical  language  is  the  preponderance  of  conso- 
nants. He  prefers  to  make  "  beauteous "  dissyllabic 
and  "  victorious  "  trisyllabic.  He  recommends  the  eli- 
sion which  makes  "  bower,"  "  Heaven,"  "Prayer,"  and 
"  higher,"  monosyllables,  and  advises  the  use  of  such 
abortions  as  "  temp'rance,"  "  fab'lous,"  "  med'cine," 
"  cov'nant,"  and  even  "  wall'wing  "  for  wallowing !  To 
compensate  for  these  clippings,  however,  he  considers 
"  ism  "  a  dissyllable  ! 

As  a  consequence  of  his  narrowing  verse  to  a  ques- 
tion of  syllable  and  accent  only,  he  vulgarizes  many 
words  unnecessarily.  The  student  of  verse  who  con- 
3 


2 6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

siders  quantity  as  well  as  accent  will  find  no  difficulty  in 
reading  the  following  lines  without  eliding  any  vowels  : 

"  From  diamond  quarries  hewn,  and  rocks  of  gold." — Mil- 
ton. 

"A  violet  by  a  mossy  stone." — Wordsworth. 

"With  vain  but  violent  force  their  darts  they  threvir." — 
Cowley. 

"  His  ephod,  mitre,  well-cut  diadem  on."— Cowley. 

"  My  blushing  hyacinth  and  my  bays  I  keep." — Dryden. 

Bysshe  cuts  down  to  "  di'mond,"  "  vi'let,"  "  vi'lent," 
"  di'dem,"  "  hy'cinth,"  words  which  need  no  such  de- 
basing elision.  As  in  music  two  short  sharp  beats  are 
equivalent  to  one  long  one  (two  minims  =  one  semi- 
breve),  so  in  verse  two  brief  vowels,  or  syllables  even, 
are,admissible— indeed,  at  times  desirable  for  the  sake 
of  variety  in  lieu  of  one. 

Among  less  questionable  maxims  of  Bysshe's  is 
one,  "  avoid  a  concourse  of  vowels,"  instanced  by — 

"  Sould  th_y  /ambics  swell  into  a  book." 

This  means,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  "  avoid  a  concourse 
of  repetitions  of  one  sound,"  a  very  necessary  rule. 
Some  poets  are  careful  not  to  get  the  same  vowel 
sound  twice  in  any  line.  "  Avoid  ending  a  verse  with 
an  adjective  whose  substantive  follows  in  the  next  line  " 
is  another  sound  precept,  instanced  by — 

"  Some  lost  their  quiet  rivals,  some  their  kind 
Parents." 


GUIDES  AND  HAND-BOOKS. 


37 


The  same  rule  applies  to  the  separation  of  a  preposition 
from  the  case  which  it  governs,  as  exemplified  in — 

"  The  daily  lessening  of  our  life  shows  by 
A  little  dying,"  etc. 

With  less  reason  Bysshe  condemns  alliteration.  It  is 
an  artifice  that  can  be  overdone,  as  is  often  the  case  in 
Poe's  poems,  and  those  of  Mr.  Swinburne.  Allitera- 
tion is  a  means,  not  an  end.  So  long  as  alliterative 
verse  pleases  the  ear,  and  yet  does  not  betray  to  its 
reader  the  cause  of  the  pleasant  sensation,  it  is  an  ad- 
mirable addition  to  the  beauty  of  the  verse.  But  as 
soon  as  it  attracts  the  reader's  attention,  as  a  tour  de 
force,  it  is  a  blot,  because  it  inflicts  an  injury  on  the 
poem  by  engaging  the  mind  on  the  machinery  instead 
of  the  matter.  Instead  of  thinking  how  exquisite  the 
poem  is,  we  are  wondering  how  often  that  clever  con- 
tortionist, the  poet,  will  fling  his  somersault  of  allitera- 
tion. 

Following  the  example  of  the  old  "  Gradus  ad  Par- 
nassum,"  Bysshe  gives  an  anthology  with  his  guide. 
An  anthology  in  a  g^ide  to  English  verse  is  worse 
than  useless,  for  it  sers^es  no  purpose  save  to  provoke 
plagiarism  and  imitation.  Any  one  who  wishes  to 
write  verse  will  do  little  unless  he  has  a  fair  acquaint- 
ance with  English  poetry — an  acquaintance  for  which 
an  anthology  can  never  be  a  substitute ;  while  it  will 
but  cripple  and  hamper  his  fancy  and  originality  by 
supplying  him  with  quotations  on  any  given  subject, 
from  "  April  "  to  "  Woman." 

Walker's  "  Rhyming  Dictionary  "  has  greater  faults. 


38 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


but  also  greater  merits,  than  Bysshe's  "  Art  of  Poetry." 
Walker  admits  and  defends  "  allowable  "  rhymes,  "  It 
may  be  objected,"  he  says,  "that  a  work  of  this  kind 
contributes  to  extend  poetical  blemishes,  by  furnishing 
imperfect  materials  and  apologies  for  using  them.  But 
it  may  be  answered  that,  if  these  imperfect  rhymes 
were  allowed  to  be  blemishes,  it  would  still  be  better 
to  tolerate  them  than  cramp  the  imagination  by  the 
too  narrow  boundaries  of  exactly  similar  sounds."  Now, 
it  is  perfectly  true,  of  course,  that  a  poet  may  well  be 
allowed  to  effect  the  compromise  of  sacrificing  a  rhyme 
for  a  thought ;  but  the  versifier  (for  whom  Walker's 
book  is  meant)  must  have  no  such  license.  He  must 
learn  to  walk  before  he  runs.  Yet  apart  from  this. 
Walker's  argument  is  singularly  illogical;  there  can 
be  no  need  to  catalogue  the  blemishes,  even  on  the 
ground  he  urges,  since  the  imagination  would  suggest 
the  license,  not  the  license  stimulate  the  imagination. 
Walker's  book,  being  simply  mechanical,  should  have 
been  confined  to  the  correct  machinery  of  verse,  and 
imagination  should  have  been  allowed  to  frame  for  it- 
self the  hcenses,  which  it  would  not  dream  of  seeking 
in  a  hand-book. 

[And  here  occasion  serves  to  declare  with  emphasis 
that  any  theory  of  "  allowable  "  rhymes  is  a  rank 
heresy  to  which  no  one  should  give  in  now  that  the  art 
of  rhyming  has  been  carried  to  its  most  varied  per- 
fection at  the  hands  of  yet  living  poets.  Either  two 
words  rhyme  together  or  they  do  not.  The  linking  to- 
gether in  a  couplet  of  "  ever  "  and  "  river,"  of  "  shadow  " 
and  "  meadow,"  of  "  heaven  "  and  "  driven,"  seen  only 


■GUIDES  AND  HAND-BOOKS.  39 

too  often,  is  without  excuse.  Identity  of  sound  is  the 
only  test  of  rhyme,  and  the  "  e  "  in  "  ever  "  is  not  pro- 
nounced like  the  "i"  in  "river,"  any  more  than  the 
"  a  "  in  "  shadow  "  sounds  like  the  "  ea  "  in  "  meadow,"] 
The  absurdity  of  talking  of  perfect  and  imperfect 
rhymes  is  only  equaled  by  that  of  speaking  of  good 
grammar  and  bad  grammar.  A  shilling  is  a  shilling — 
what  the  vulgar  call  "a  bad  shilling"  is  no  shilling 
at  all. 

But  for  this  defect.  Walker's  Dictionary  would  be 
the  best  book  of  the  sort  possible.  It  contains,  besides 
an  index  in  which  rhymes  are  arranged  under  various 
terminations,  as  in  Bysshe's  work,  a  terminational  dic- 
tionary of  three  hundred  pages ;  a  dictionary,  that  is, 
in  which  the  words  are  arranged  as  in  ordinary  dic- 
tionaries, save  that  the  last  and  not  the  first  letter  of 
the  word  is  that  under  which  it  is  ranged. 

Of  the  recent  books  published,  there  are  but  two 
of  any  note  or  importance  in  England.  One  claims  to 
be  a  "  complete  practical  guide  to  the  whole  subject  of 
English  versification"  —  "an  exhaustive  treatise,"  in 
which  the  writer,  by  way  of  simplifying  matters,  pro- 
poses to  supersede  the  old  titles  of  spondee,  dactyl, 
etc.,  by  the  titles  of  "march,"  "trip,"  "quick,"  and 
"  revert,"  and  makes  accents  intelligible  by  calling 
them  "  backward  "  and  "  forward,"  with  such  further 
lucidities  as  "hover,"  "main,"  "midabout,"  and  other 
technicalities  afford.  Its  chief  characteristic,  however, 
is  a  decided  condemnation  of  rhyme  altogether,  and  a 
suggestion  of  the  substitution  of  "assonance,"  under 
which  "  path  "  and  "  ways,"  and  "  pride  "  and  "  wife," 


40 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


would  do  duty  for  rhyme  !  The  treatise,  though  spoiled 
by  pedantic  aiming  after  novelties  of  nomenclature, 
and  too  assertive  language,  is  worth  perusal.  But  as 
"a  practical  guide"  it  is  at  present  useless,  and  will 
remain  so  until  English  rhyme  is  disestablished  and 
disendowed  by  act  of  Parliament.  Although  its  author 
modestly  describes  it  as  "  the  first  treatise  of  the  kind 
ever  completed,"  and  considers  it  "will  in  no  mean 
degree  serve  to  advance  "  the  study  of  English  verse, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  there  is  little  danger  of  its  set- 
ting the  Pierian  spring  on  fire. 

A  more  practical  "  Handbook  of  Poetry "  is  the 
best  work  of  the  kind  I  have  met  with,  but  it  is  full  of 
grave  errors.  It  begins  with  a  definition  of  "  Poetry," 
which  makes  it  identical  with  "  Verse,"  and  it  tends 
too  much  to  the  side  of  license  in  consequence,  from 
the  fact  of  permitting  to  the  versifier  freedoms  which 
poets  only  can  claim.  On  rhyme  it  is  singularly  in- 
consistent. It  pronounces  as  no  rhyme  "  heart "  and 
"art,"  which  to  any  but  a  cockney  ear  are  perfect 
rhymes.  Yet,  a  few  paragraphs  farther  on,  its  only 
objection  to  the  coupling  of  "  childhood  "  and  "  wild- 
wood  "  as  a  double  rhyme,  is  that  it  is  hackneyed  ; 
whereas  it  is  not  a  double  rhyme  at  all !  In  a  chapter 
on  "  Imagery,"  though  "  metaphor "  is  catalogued, 
"  simile  "  is  omitted,  and  both  together  reappear  under 
the  needless  subdivision  "  tropes."  An  anthology  is 
added,  and  a  dictionary  of  double  and  treble  rhymes — 
as  if  it  were  possible  to  give  anything  like  an  exhaust- 
ive list  of  them  in  twenty  pages ! 

Such  being  the  imperfections,  whether  of  short- 


GUIDES  AND  HAND-BOOKS. 


41 


coming  or  excess,  of  the  various  existing  hand-books, 
I  venture  to  hope  that  this  little  treatise  may  plead 
some  excuse  for  its  appearance.  It  does  not  pretend 
to  be  an  exhaustively  complete  practical  gijide  or  hand- 
book to  poetry.  It  is  simply  an  attempt  to  set  forth 
simply  but  strictly  the  Rules  of  Rhyme. 

[Tv^fQ  American  books,  published  since  the  English 
author  wrote,  demand  notice  here.  The  first  is  "  A 
Vocabulary  of  English  Rhymes,"  by  the  Rev.  Samuel 
W.  Barnum  (D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1876).  This  is  by 
far  the  most  elaborate,  logical,  and  exact  of  rhyming 
dictionaries.  Its  only  defect  is  that  it  is  perhaps  a 
little  severe  in  the  arrangement  by  vowel-sounds,  and 
that  it  gives  in  to  the  heresy  of  allowable  rhymes.  But 
it  is  a  useful  book  for  the  student.  The  second  is  the 
late  Sidney  Lanier's  "  Science  of  English  Verse  " 
(Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1880),  in  which  he  lays  the 
foundations  of  verse  on  the  physical  laws  of  sound. 
The  "  Science  of  Verse  "  is  not  easy  reading,  but  it 
will  well  repay  careful  study ;  in  it,  for  the  time,  verse 
is  examined  from  the  proper  and  scientific  point  of 
view.  It  is  emphatically  a  book  for  the  student  to 
ponder  after  he  has  read  Poe's  essay.] 


CHAPTER   IV. 

OF   FEET   AND    C^SURA. 

'T^HE  feet  most  often  met  with  in  English  verse  are 

-■-     those  corresponding  with  the  trochee  and  iambus,* 

that  is  approximately.     The  iambic  is  most  common, 

perhaps,  represented  by  two  syllables  with  the  accent 

on  the  last  syllable.     The  trochee  has  two  syllables, 

with  the  accent  on  the  first.     An  example  of  a  line  in 

each  meter  will  show  the  difference  : 

Four  Foot  Iambic. 

"  To  fair'  Fide'le's  gras'sy  tomb'." 

Four  Foot  Trochaic. 
•'  Not'  a  sin'gle  man'  depart'ed." 

Dactyls  (an  accented  followed  by  two  unaccented 
syllables)  and  anapaests  (two  unaccented  syllables  fol- 
lowed by  an  accented  one)  are  most  frequently  used 
in  combination  with  the  other  feet : 

Anapcestic. 
"  O'er  the  world'  |  from  the  hour'  |  of  her  birth'." 

*  The  spondee  (two  long  syllables)  can  have  no  equivalent 
in  accent,  as  it  would  need  two  accented  syllables  next  to  each 
other,  which  can  only  be  used  very  exceptionally. — (T.  H.) 


OF  FEET  AND   C^SURA.  43 

Dactylic. 

"  Make'  no  deep  |  scru'tiny 
In'to  her  |  mu'tiny." 

It  appears  to  me  preferable  to  retain  the  classic  names 
for  these  feet,  rather  than  to  try  and  invent  new  titles 
for  them.  One  writer  on  versification  has  attempted 
to  do  this,  and  calls  the  iambic  "  march  "  measure, 
and  the  trochaic  "  trip,"  This  seems  to  me  to  render 
the  nature  of  the  measure  liable  to  misconstruction,  as 
if  the  former  only  suited  elevated  themes,  and  the  lat- 
ter light  ones ;  whereas  the  meter  of  Hudibras  is 
iambic,  and  Aytoun's  ballad  of  the  "  Battle  of  Flodden  " 
is  trochaiCi  The  truth  is,  that  the  form  of  the  foot 
has  little  to  do  with  the  "march"  or  "trip"  of  the 
verse,  for  "  The  Bridge  of  Sighs "  is  written  in  a 
dactylic  form  ;  and,  according  to  the  authority  just 
alluded  to,  if  the  trochee  be  a  "  trip,"  the  dactyl  must 
be  a  "  jig  "  ! 

By  the  combinations  of  these  feet  in  certain  num- 
bers a  line  is  constituted.  Those  in  which  two,  three, 
and  four  feet  occur — dimeters,  trimeters,  and  tetra- 
meters— are  not  so  general  as  lines  of  more  feet,  and 
in  these  latter  a  new  feature  has  to  be  recognized  and 
provided  for  —  the  caesura  or  pause.  Strictly,  the 
caesura  causes  poetry  to  be  written  in  lines,  the  end 
of  each  being  a  caesura ;  but  there  are  other  csesuras 
in  the  line,  one  or  more  according  to  its  length.  In 
the  best  verse  they  correspond  with  a  natural  pause  in 
the  sense  of  the  words.  When  they  do  not,  the  arti- 
ficial punctuation  injures  the  harmony  with  which  the 


44  THE  RHYMESTER.    . 

sound  and  the  sense  should  flow  together.  It  is  by 
varying  the  fall  of  the  csesura  that  the  best  writers  of 
blank  decasyllabic  verse  contrive  to  divest  it  of  mo- 
notony. In  some  of  the  more  irregular  forms  of  verse, 
especially  when  it  is  unrhymed,  the  caesura  is  all- 
important,  giving  to  the  lines  their  rise  and  fall — a 
structure  not  altogether  unlike  what  has  been  termed 
the  parallelism  of  Hebrew  versification. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  lay  down  rules  for  the  use 
of  the  cassura,  or  pause,  in  English  verse.  It  differs 
from  the  classic  cassura  in  falling  at  the  end  of  both 
foot  and  word.  Of  its  possible  varieties  we  may  gain 
some  idea  when  we  note  that,  in  the  decasyllabic  line, 
for  instance,  it  may  fall  after  each  foot,  and  it  is  by  the 
shifting  of  its  place  that  in  this,  as  in  blank  verse,  mo- 
notony is  avoided.  In  shorter  measures,  especially  of 
a  lyric  nature,  it  generally  falls  midway  in  the  line. 

The  plan  of  giving  to  our  accentual  feet  the  titles 
given  to  the  classical  quantitative  feet  has  been  strong- 
ly condemned  by  some  writers.  I  venture  to  think  they 
have  hardly  considered  the  matter  sufficiently.  It  must 
be  better  to  use  these  meaningless  terms  (as  we  use 
the  gibberish  of  Baroko  and  Bramantip  in  logic)  than 
to  apply  new  names  which,  by  aiming  at  being  express- 
ive, may  be  misleading.  But  there  is  something  more 
than  this  to  be  considered.  There  is  in  accent  this,  in 
common  with  quantity,  that  just  as  two  shorts  make  a 
long,  and  can  be  substituted  for  it,  so  two  unaccented 
syllables  may  take  the  place  of  one  rather  more  ac- 
cented ;  or  perhaps  it  will  be  found  that  the  substitution 
is  due  less  to  the  correspondence  in  accent  alone  than 


OF  FEET  AND   CyESURA. 


45 


to  correspondence  of  quantity  as  well  as  accent.  To 
put  it  briefly,  these  resolutions  of  the  foot  into  more 
syllables  are — like  similar  resolutions  in  music — a  ques- 
tion of  time,  and  time  means  quantity  rather  than  ac- 
cent. As  an  instance  of  this,  I  may  give  the  much- 
quoted,  often-discussed  line : 

"  Than  tired  eyelids  upon  tired  eyes." 

The  ordinary  method  of  scanning  this  is  to  make  a 
dissyllable  of  "  tired,"  as  if  it  were  "  ti-erd,"  a  vulgar- 
ism of  which  its  author  would  never  have  been  guilty. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  long  "  i  "  and  the  roll  of  the  "  r  " 
correspond  in  time  to  a  dissyllable,  and,  by  changing 
the  run  of  the  line,  carry  out  perfectly  Pope's  notion  of 
the  sound  echoing  the  sense. 

These  resolutions,  therefore,  need  a  most  accurate 
ear,  and  no  slight  experience.  The  versifier  will  do 
well,  as  a  beginner,  to  refrain  from  attempting  them. 
When  he  has  gone  on  writing  verse  by  rule  of  thumb 
until  he  begins  to  discover  a  formality  in  them  that 
would  be  the  better  for  variation,  he  may  fairly  try  his 
hand  at  it — but  not  until  then.  Before  that,  his  redun- 
dancy of  syllables  would  be  the  result  of  faulty  or  un- 
finished expression,  not  the  studied  cause  of  a  change 
in  run. 


CHAPTER  V. 

METER  AND   RHYTHM. 

IT  was  scarcely  possible  to  explain  what  the  feet  in 
verse  are  without  assuming  the  existence  of  lines, 
in  order  to  give  intelligible  examples  of  the  various 
feet.  But  the  consideration  of  the  construction  of 
lines  really  belongs  to  this  chapter. 

A  line  is  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  feet, 
from  two  to  almost  any  number  short  of  ten  or  so— if 
indeed  we  may  limit  the  number  exactly,  for  there  is 
nothing  to  prevent  a  man  from  writing  a  line  of  twenty 
feet  if  he  have  ingenuity  enough  to  maintain  the  har- 
mony and  beat  necessary  to  constitute  verse.  As  a 
rule,  we  seldom  meet  with  more  than  eight  feet  in  a 
line. 

A  line  may  consist  of  feet  of  the  same  description, 
or  of  a  combination  of  various  feet.  And  this  combi- 
nation may  be  exactly  repeated  in  the  corresponding 
line  or  lines,  or  one  or  more  of  the  feet  may  be  replaced 
by  another  corresponding  in  time  or  quantity.  Here  is 
an  instance  : 

"  I  knew  I  by  the  smoke  that  so  gracefully  curled  .  .  . 
And  I  said  |  '  if  there's  peace  to  be  found  in  the  world.' " 


METER  AND  RHYTHM. 


47 


Here  the  iambic  "  I  knew' "  is  resolved  into  the  ana- 
paest, "  and  I  said',"  * — or  rather  (as  the  measure  is 
anapsestic)  the  iambic  takes  the  place  of  the  anapsest. 

When  only  two  feet  go  to  a  line,  it  is  a  dimeter. 
Three  form  a  trimeter,  four  a  tetrameter,  five  a  penta- 
meter, six  a  hexameter,  seven  a  heptameter,  eight  an 
octameter,  which,  however,  is  usually  resolved  into  two 
tetrameters.  If  the  feet  be  iambics  or  trochees,  of 
course  the  number  of  syllables  will  be  double  that  of 
the  feet — thus  a  pentameter  will  be  decasyllabic.  When 
dactyls  or  anapaests  are  used,  of  course  the  number  of 
syllables  exceeds  the  double  of  the  feet.  But  there  is 
no  necessity  for  enlarging  on  this  point :  I  have  given 
enough  to  explain  terms,  with  which  the  student  may 
perhaps  meet  while  reading  up  the  subject  of  versifica- 
tion. As  he  may  also  meet  with  the  terms  "  catalec- 
tic  "  and  "  acatalectic,"  it  may  be  as  well  to  give  a 
brief  explanation  of  them  also.  A  catalectic  line  is 
one  in  which  the  last  foot  is  not  completed.  An  acata- 
lectic is  one  in  which  the  line  and  the  foot  terminate 
together.  An  extract  from  the  "  Bridge  of  Sighs,"  a 
dactylic  poem,  will  illustrate  this  : 

"  Make  no  deep  |  scrutiny 
Into  her  (  mutiny  ; 

*  In  the  classic  measures  a  long  ( - )  is  equivalent  to  two 
short  ( v^ )  quantities,  in  the  English  feet  it  is  the  unaccented 
syllables  (which  we  may  rudely  consider  the  shorts)  which  are 
capable  of  resolution.  In  spite  of  this  difference,  however,  it 
seems  most  simple  to  keep  the  old  terms,  and  use  the  old  for- 
mula.—(T.  H.) 


48  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Rash  and  un  |  dutiful, 
Past  all  dis  |  honor  ; 
Death  has  left  |  on  her 

Only  the  |  beautiful. 


Take  her  up  |  tenderly, 

Lift  her  with  |  care  ; 
Fashion'd  so  |  slenderly, 

Young  and  so  |  fair." 

Here  the  fourth  and  fifth,  the  eighth  and  tenth  lines 
are  catalectic.  In  the  first  two  the  last  foot  needs  one 
syllable,  in  the  others  it  requires  two.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  point  out  how  such  variations  improve  and 
invigorate  the  nneasure,  by  checking  the  gallop  of  the 
verse. 

We  have  now  seen  that  the  line  may  be  composed 
of  various  numbers  of  the  different  feet.  The  next 
step  to  consider  is  the  combination  of  lines  into  stan- 
zas. 

Stanzas  are  formed  of  Iwo  or  more  lines.  Two 
lines  are  styled  a  couplet,  three  a  triplet,  and  four  a 
quatrain,  while  other  combinations  owe  their  titles  to 
those  who  have  used  them  first  or  most,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Spenserian  stanza. 

The  reader  will  see  at  once  that,  each  of  these  kinds 
of  stanzas  being  constructible  of  any  of  the  styles  of 
line  before  enumerated,  each  style  of  line  being  in  its 
turn  constructible  of  any  of  the  sorts  of  feet  described 
in  a  previous  chapter,  to  make  any  attempt  to  give  an 
exhaustive  list  of  stanzas  would  be  to  enter  upon  an 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  49 

arithmetical  progression  alarming  to  think  of.*  I  shall 
therefore  only  enumerate  a  few,  giving,  as  seems  most 
useful  for  my  purpose,  examples  of  the  most  common 
form  of  a  peculiar  stanza,  as  in  the  case  of  the  deca- 
syllabic couplet  of  Pope,  and  the  nine-line  stanza  of 
Spenser,  or  the  least  common,  as  when,  in  the  quatrain, 
it  appears  preferable  to  give,  instead  of  the  alternate- 
rhymed  octosyllabic  tetrameters  which  have  been  re- 
peated ad  nauseam,  such  fresh  forms  as  will  be  found 
in  the  extracts  from  "  The  Haunted  House,"  or  Brown- 
ing's "  Pretty  Woman." 

EXAMPLES. 

THE   COUPLET   OR   DISTICH.f 

Dimeter  (four-syllabled). 

"  Here,  here  I  live 
And  somewhat  give." 

— Herrick,  Hesperides. 

Tetrameter  (eight-syllabled), 

"His  tawny  beard  was  th'  equal  grace 
Both  of  his  wisdom  and  his  face." 

— Butler,  Hiidibras. 

*  Various  forms  of  stanza  may  be  combined  in  one  poem 
(though  most  usually  in  the  ode  only),  provided  regard  be  had 
to  harmony  and  unity,  so  that  the  meters  be  not  varied  unsuit- 
ably or  violently.— (T.  H.)  ' 

+  In  couplets,  the  two  lines,  in  triplets  (with  two  exceptional 
forms)  the  three,  rhyme  together.  In  quatrains  usually  the  al- 
ternate lines  rhyme.  As  the  lines  of  the  stanza  increase  in  num- 
ber, the  methods  of  rhyming  of  course  vary. — (T.  H.) 


so 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


Tetrameter  (seven-syllabled). 
"  As  it  fell  upon  a  day 
In  the  merry  month  of  May." 

— Shakespeare. 

Pentameter  (ten-syllabled,  "  Pope's  decasyllable  "). 

"  Truth  from  his  lips  prevail'd  with  double  sway, 
And  fools  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  pray." 

— Golds??tiih,  Deserted  Village. 

Hexameter  (twelve-syllabled). 

"  Doth  beat  the  brooks  and  ponds  for  sweet    refreshing 
soil  : 
That  serving  not — then  proves  if  he  his  scent  may  foil." 

— Drayton^  Polyolbion. 

Heptameter  (fourteen-syllabled). 

"  Now  glory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  from  whom  all  glories 
are  ; 
And  glory  to  our  sovereign  liege,  King  Henry  of  Na- 
varre." — Macaulay,  Battle  of  Ivry, 

The  couplet  may  also  be  formed  of  two  lines  of 
irregular  length  : 

"  Beloved,  O  men's  mother,  O  men's  queen  ! 
Arise,  appear,  be  seen." 

— Swinburne,  Ode  to  Italy. 

"  Where  the  quiet-colored  end  of  evening  smiles 
Miles  on  miles." 

— Browning,  Love  among  the  Ruins. 

"  Morning,  evening,  noon,  and  night, 
'  Praise  God,'  sang  Theocrite." 

— Browning,  The  Boy  and  the  Angel, 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  51 

"  Take  the  cloak  from  his  face  and  at  first 

Let  the  corpse  do  its  worst." 

— Browning,  After. 

"  Or  for  a  time  we'll  lie 
As  robes  laid  by." 

— Hertick,  Hesperidcs. 

"  Give  me  a  cell 
To  dwell." 

— Henick,  Hespe^ides. 

Two  couplets  are  at  times  linked  together  into  a 
quatrain.  More  often  they  are  formed  into  six-line 
stanzas — that  is,  a  couplet  followed  by  a  line  which  has 
its  rhyme  in  another  line  following  the  second  couplet. 
But,  indeed,  the  combination  of  stanzas  is  almost  inex- 
haustible. 

TRIPLETS. 

Trimeter  (six-syllabled). 

"  And  teach  me  how  to  sing 
Unto  the  lyric  string 
^ly  measures  ravishing." 

— Herrick,  Hesperidcs. 

Tetrameter  (seven-syllabled). 

"  O,  thou  child  of  many  prayers, 
Life  hath  quicksands,  life  hath  snares. 
Care  and  age  come  unawares." 

— Lottgfellow,  Maidenhood. 

Octameter  (fifteen-syllabled). 

"  Was  a  lady  such  a  lady,  cheeks  so  round  and  lips  so  red — 
On  her  neck  the  small  face  buoyant,  like  a  bell-flower 
o'er  its  bed, 
4 


52  THE  RHYMESTER. 

O'er  the  breast's  superb  abundance  where  a  man  might 
base  his  head." 

— Browning,  A  Toccata. 

The  triplet  pure  and  simple  is  not  a  very-  common 
form  ;  it  is  most  frequently  combined  with  other  forms 
to  make  longer  stanzas.  At  times  the  second  line,  in- 
stead of  rhyming  with  the  first  or  third,  finds  an  echo 
in  the  next  triplet — sometimes  in  the  second,  but  more 
often  in  the  first  and  third  hnes  : 

"  Make  me  a  face  on  the  window  there, 
Waiting,  as  ever  mute  the  while, 
My  love  to  pass  below  in  the  square. 

"  And  let  me  think  that  it  may  beguile 
Dreary  days,  which  the  dead  must  spend 
Down  in  their  darkness  under  the  aisle." 

— Broioning,  The  Statue  and  the  Bust. 

Another  species  of  triplet  occurs  in  the  Pope  meas- 
ure (pentameter-decasyllabic).  It  is  formed  by  the 
introduction,  after  an  ordinary  couplet,  of  a  third  line, 
repeating  the  rhyme,  and  consisting  of  eleven  syllables 
and  six  feet.  Dryden,  however,  and  some  other  writ- 
ers, gave  an  occasional  triplet  without  the  extra  foot. 
The  Alexandrine — i.  e.,  the  six-foot  line — ought  to  close 
the  sense,  and  conclude  with  a  full  stop. 

THE   QUATRAIN. 

Of  this  form  of  stanza  the  name  is  legion.  Of  the 
most  common  styles,  the  reader's  memory  will  supply 
numerous  examples.     I  shall  merely  give  a  few  of  the 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  53 

rarer  kinds.  The  quatrain  may  consist  practically  of 
two  couplets,  or  of  a  couplet  divided  by  a  couplet,  as  in 
Tennyson's  "  In  Memoriam."  But  the  usual  rule  is  to 
rhyme  the  first  and  third,  and  second  and  fourth.  The 
laxity  which  leaves  the  two  former  unrhymed  is  a  prac- 
tice which  can  not  be  too  strongly  condemned.  Qua- 
trains so  formed  should  in  honesty  be  written  as  coup- 
lets ;  but  such  a  condensation  would  possibly  not  suit 
the  views  of  the  mob  of  magazine  versifiers,  who  have 
inflicted  this  injurj^  with  many  others,  upon  English 
versification. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  here  that  the  rhyme  of  the 
first  and  third  lines  should  be  as  dissimilar  as  possible 
in  sound  to  that  of  the  second  and  fourth.  This  is,  in 
fact,  a  part  of  the  rule  which  forbids  repetitions  of  the 
same  vowel-sounds  in  a  line — chief  of  all,  a  repetition 
of  the  particular  vowel-sound  of  the  rhyme.  The 
rhymes  recurring  give  a  beat  which  is  something  like  a 
csesura,  and  when,  therefore,  the  rhyme  sound  occurs 
elsewhere  than  at  its  correct  post,  it  mars  the  flow. 
Here  follow  a  few  examples  of  the  quatrain.  I  have 
not  specified  the  syllables  or  feet,  as  the  reader  by  this 
time  will  have  learned  to  scan  for  himself ;  and,  owing 
to  the  varieties  of  measure,  such  a  specification  would 
be  cumbrous  : 

"  The  woodlouse  dropp'd  and  roll'd  into  a  ball, 
Touch'd  by  some  impulse,  occult  or  mechanic, 
And  nameless  beetles  ran  along  the  wall 
In  universal  panic." 

— Hood,  Haunted  House. 


54  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  That  fawn-skin-dappled  hair  of  hers, 
And  the  blue  eye, 
Dear  and  dewy. 
And  that  infantine  fresh  air  of  hers." 

— Browning,  A  Fair  Woman. 

"  All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights, 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame  ; 
All  are  but  ministers  of  love. 
And  feed  his  sacred  flame." 

— Coleridge,  Love, 

0 

"  What  constitutes  a  state  ? 
Not  high-raised  battlement  or  labor'd  mound, 

Thick  wall,  or  moated  gate. 
Nor  cities  proud  with  spires  and  turrets  crown'd." 

— Jones,  Ode. 

"  Whither,  midst  falling  dew. 
While  glow  the  heavens  with  the  last  steps  of  day, 
Far  through  their  rosy  depths,  dost  thou  pursue 
Thy  solitary  way." 

— Bryant,  To  a  Waterfowl. 

"  Sweet  day,  so  calm,  so  cool,  so  bright, 
The  bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky, 
The  dews  shall  weep  thy  fall  to-night, 
For  thou  must  die." 

— J/erdert,  Virtue. 

THE   FIVE-LINE   STANZA. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  this  one  of  the  most  musical 
forms  of  the  stanza  we  possess.  It  is  capable  of  almost 
endless  variety,  and  the  proportions  of  rhymes,  three 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  55 

and  two,  seem  to  be  especially  conducive  to  harmony. 
It  would  be  curious  to  go  into  the  question  how  many 
popular  poems  are  in  this  form.  Here  are  two  exam- 
ples— both  of  them  from  favorite  pieces  : 

"  Go,  lovely  rose. 
Tell  her  that  wastes  her  time  and  me, 

That  now  she  knows 
When  I  resemble  her  to  thee. 
How  sweet  and  fair  she  seems  to  be." 

—  Waller,  To  a  Rose. 

"  Higher  still  and  higher 

From  the  earth  thou  springest ; 
Like  a  cloud  of  fire, 

The  blue  deep  thou  wingest, 
And  singing  still  dost  soar,  and  soaring  ever  singest." 

—Shelley,  The  Skylark. 

[A  third  may  be  added,  from  a  dashing  American 
poem  : 

"  Hark  !  the  jingle 
Of  the  sleigh-bells'  song  ! 
Earth  and  air  in  snowy  sheen  commingle  ; 

Swiftly  throng 
Norseland  fancies,  as  we  sail  along." 

— Stedman,  The  Sleigh-Ride.'] 

Mr.  Browning  frequently  uses  this  stanza,  and  with 
admirable  effect.  Although  he  has  been  accused  of 
ruggedness  by  some  critics,  there  is  no  modem  poet 
who  has  a  greater  acquaintance  with  the  various  forms 
of  verse,  or  can  handle  them  more  ably.  The  follow- 
ing are  examples  of  his  treatment  : 


56  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Is  it  your  moral  of  life  ? 

Such  a  web,  simple  and  subtle, 
Weave  we  on  earth  here,  in  impotent  strife 

Backward  and  forward  each  throwing  his  shuttle — 
Death  ending  all  with  a  knife  ?  " 

— Master  Hugues. 

"  And  yonder  at  foot  of  the  fronting  ridge. 
That  takes  the  turn  to  a  range  beyond. 
Is  the  chapel,  reach'd  by  the  one-arch'd  bridge. 

Where  the  water  is  stopp'd  in  a  stagnant  pond. 
Danced  over  by  the  midge." 

— By  the  Fireside. 

"  Stand  still,  true  poet  that  you  are  ! 

I  know  you  ;  let  me  try  and  draw  you. 
Some  night  you'll  fail  us  ;  when  afar 

You  rise,  remember  one  man  saw  you — 
Knew  you — and  named  a  star." 

— Popularity. 

"  Not  a  twinkle  from  the  fly, 

Not  a  glimmer  from  the  worm. 
When  the  crickets  stopp'd  their  cry. 

When  the  owls  forbore  a  term, 
You  heard  music — that  was  I ! " 

— A  Serenade. 

"  When  the  spider  to  serve  his  ends, 
By  a  sudden  thread. 
Arms  and  legs  outspread, 
On  the  table's  midst  descends — 
Comes  to  find  God  knows  what  friends  ! " 

— Mesmerism. 


METER  AND  RHYTHM. 


THE   SIX-LINE   STANZA. 


57 


With  the  increasing  number  of  lines  comes  an  in- 
creasing number  of  combinations  of  rhymes.  There  is 
the  combination  of  three  couplets,  and  there  is  that  of 
two  couplets,  with  another  pair  of  rhymes,  one  line 
after  the  first,  the  other  after  the  second  couplet.  Then 
there  is  a  quatrain  of  alternate  rhymes,  and  a  final 
couplet — to  mention  no  others  : 

"  Fear  no  more  the  heat  o'  the  sun, 

Nor  the  furious  winter's  rages  ; 

Thou  thy  worldly  task  hast  done, 

Home  art  gone,  and  ta'en  thy  wages — 
Golden  lads  and  girls  all  must 
Like  chimney-sweepers  come  to  dust." 

— Shakespeare. 

"  One  day,  it  matters  not  to  know 
How  many  hundred  years  ago, 
A  Spaniard  stopt  at  a  posada  door  ; 

The  landlord  came  to  welcome  him  and  chat 
Of  this  and  that, 
For  he  had  seen  the  traveller  here  before." 

— Southey,  St.  Romuald. 

"  And  wash'd  by  my  cosmetic  bnish, 
How  Beauty's  cheeks  began  to  blush 
With  locks  of  auburn  stain — 
Not  Goldsmith's  Auburn,  nut-brown  hair 
That  made  her  loveliest  of  the  fair. 
Not  loveliest  of  the  plain." 

— Hood,  Progress  of  Art. 


58  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Some  watch,  some  call,  some  see  her  head  emerge 
Wherever  a  brown  weed  falls  through  the  foam  ; 
Some  point  to  white  eruptions  of  the  surge — 
But  she  is  vanish'd  to  her  shady  home. 
Under  the  deep  inscrutable,  and  there 
Weeps  in  a  midnight  made  of  her  own  hair." 

— Hood,  Hero  and  Leander. 

"  Ever  drifting,  drifting,  drifting, 
On  the  shifting 
Currents  of  the  restless  heart — 
Till  at  length  in  books  recorded. 

They  like  hoarded 
Household  words  no  more  depart." 

— Lo7igfellow,  Seaweed. 

"  Before  me  rose  an  avenue 

Of  tall  and  sombrous  pines  ; 
Abroad  their  fanlike  branches  grew, 
And  where  the  sunshine  darted  through, 
Spread  a  vapor,  soft  and  blue. 
In  long  and  sloping  lines." 

— Longfellow,  Prelude. 

["  Might  we  but  hear 
The  hovering  angels'  high  imagined  chorus, 

Or  catch  betimes,  with  wakeful  eyes  and  clear, 
One  radiant  vista  of  the  realm  before  us — 
With  one  rapt  moment  given  to  see  and  hear, 
Ah  !  who  would  fear?  " 
— Stedman,  The  Undiscovered  Country^ 

The  following  form  may  be  looked  upon  as  Burns's 
exclusively : 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  59 

"  Wee,  modest,  crimson-tipped  flower — 
Thou'st  met  me  in  an  evil  hour. 
For  I  maun  crush  among  the  stour 
Thy  slender  stem  ; 
To  spare  thee  now  is  past  my  power, 
Thou  bonnie  gem." 
•  —  To  a  Mountain  Daisy. 

THE  SEVEN-LINE  STANZA. 

This  form  is  not  very  common.  It  may  be  formed 
of  a  quatrain  and  triplet ;  of  a  quatrain,  a  line  rhyming 
the  last  of  the  quatrain,  and  a  couplet ;  of  a  quatrain, 
a  couplet,  and  a  line  rhyming  the  fourth  line.  Or  these 
may  be  reversed. 

THE  EIGHT-LINE  STANZA. 

This  is  susceptible  of  endless  variety,  commencing 
with  two  quatrains,  or  a  six-line  stanza  and  a  couplet, 
or  two  triplets  with  a  brace  of  rhyming  lines,  one  after 
each  triplet. 

"  Thus  lived — thus  died  she  ;  nevennore  on  her 
Shall  sorrow  light  or  shame.     She  was  not  made 
Through  years  or  moons  the  inner  weight  to  bear, 

Which  colder  hearts  endure  till  they  are  laid 
By  age  in  earth  ;  her  days  and  pleasures  were 
Brief  but  delightful  ;  such  as  had  not  staid 
Long  with  her  destiny.     But  she  sleeps  well 
By  the  sea-shore  whereon  she  loved  to  dwell." 

— Byron,  Don  Juan. 


6o  THE  RHYMESTER. 


THE  NINE-LINE   STANZA, 

Of  this  form  the  most  generally  used  is  the  Spen- 
serian, or  the  following  variation  of  it : 

"  A  little,  sorrowful,  deserted  thing, 

Begot  of  love  and  yet  no  love  begetting  ; 
Guiltless  of  shame,  and  yet  for  shame  to  wring  ; 
And  too  soon  banish'd  from  a  mother's  petting 
To  churlish  nature  and  the  wide  world's  fretting, 
For  alien  pity  and  unnatural  care  ; 
Alas  !  to  see  how  the  cold  dew  kept  wetting 
His  childish  coats,  and  dabbled  all  his  hair 
Like  gossamers  across  his  forehead  fair." 

— Hood,  Midsummer  Fairies. 

The  Spenserian  has  the  same  arrangement  of  the 
rhymes,  but  has  an  extra  foot'  in  the  last  line.  The 
two  last  lines  of  a  stanza  from  "  Childe  Harold  "  will 
illustrate  this : 

"  To  mingle  with  the  universe  and  feel 

What  I  can  ne'er  express,  yet  can  not  all  conceal." 

— By7vn. 

The  formation  of  the  ten,  eleven,  twelve,  etc.,  line 
stanzas  is  but  an  adaptation  of  those  already  described. 
A  single  fourteen-line  stanza  of  a  certain  arrangement 
of  rhyme  is  a  sonnet  [which  is  considered  in  a  special 
chapter].  I  am  almost  inclined  to  omit  discussion  of 
blank  verse,  but  will  give  a  brief  summary  of  its  varie- 
ties. The  ordinary  form  of  blank  verse  is  the  deca- 
syllabic in  which  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost  "  is  written  : 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  6l 

"  Of  man's  first  disobedience  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  world  and  all  our  woe." 

.  This  consists  of  ten  syllables  with  an  accented  fol- 
lowing an  unaccented  syllable.  It  is  presented  from 
monotony  by  the  varying  fall  of  the  caesura  or  pause. 
It  occurs  but  rarely  after  the  first  foot  or  the  eighth 
foot,  and  not  often  after  the  third  and  seventh.  Eli- 
sions and  the  substitution  of  a  trisyllable,  equivalent  in 
time  for  a  dissyllable,  are  met  with,  and  at  times  the 
accent  is  shifted,  when  by  the  change  the  sense  of  the 
line  gains  in  vigor  of  expression,  as  in  , 

"  Once  found,  which  yet  unfound,  most  would  have  thought 
Impossible." 

According  to  scansion  "  most  would',''  but  by  the 
throwing  back  of  the  accent  strengthened  and  distin- 
guished into  "  jnost  would  have  thought."  In  addition 
to  this,  in  the  blank  verse  of  the  stage,  we  find  occa- 
sionally additional  syllables,  as 

"  Or  to  take  aims  against  a  sea  of  troub(les)." 

Other  forms  of  blank  verse  follow  : 

1.  "  If  aught  of  oaten  stop  or  pastoral  song 

May  hope,  chaste  Eve,  to  soothe  thy  modest  ear, 
Like  thy  own  solemn  springs, 
Thy  springs  and  dying  gales." 

— Collins,  Ode  to  Evening. 

2.  "  But  never  could  I  tune  my  reed 

At  mom,  or  noon,  or  eve,  so  sweet, 


62  THE  RHYMESTER. 

As  when  upon  the  ocean  shore 

I  hail'd  thy  star-beam  mild." 
— Kirke  White,  Shipwrecked  Solitary's  Song. 

3.  "  Who  at  this  untimely  hour 
Wanders  o'er  the  desert  sands  ? 

No  station  is  in  view, 
No  palm-grove  islanded  amidst  the  waste — 

The  mother  and  her  child, 
The  widow'd  mother  and  the  fatherless  boy, 
They  at  this  untimely  hour 
Wander  o'er  the  desert  sands."* 

— Sotithcy,  Thalaba. 

4.  "  Friend  of  my  bosom,  thou  more  than  a  brother, 

Why  wast  not  thou  born  in  my  father's  dwelling  ? 
So  might  we  talk  of  the  old  familiar  faces." 

— Lamb, 

5.  "  See  how  he  scorns  all  human  arguments 

So  that  no  oar  he  wants,  nor  other  sail 
Than  his  own  wings  between  so  distant  shores."  f 
— Longfellow,  Translation  of  Dante. 

6.  "  Yet  dost  thou  recall 

Days  departed,  half-forgotten. 
When  in  dreamy  youth  I  wander'd 
By  the  Baltic." 

— Longfellow,  To  a  Danish  Song-Book. 

7.  "  All  things  in  earth  and  air 

Bound  were  by  magic  spell 

*  See  also  Shelley's  "  Queen  Mab."— (T.  H.) 
t  This  is  the  simple  decasyllable,  the  peculiarity  being  a  divi- 
sion into  stanzas  of  three  lines. — (T.  H.) 


METER  AND  RHYTHM.  63 

Never  to  do  him  harm  ; 
Even  the  plants  and  stones, 
All  save  the  mistletoe, 
The  sacred  mistletoe." 

— Longfellow,  Tegner's  Drapa. 

8.  "  Give  me  of  your  bark,  O  birch-tree  ! 

Of  your  yellow  bark,  O  birch-tree  ! 
Growing  by  the  rushing  river, 
Tall  and  stately  in  the  valley." 

— Longfellow,  Hiawatha. 

9.  "  Heard  he  that  cry  of  pain  ;  and  through  the  hush 

that  succeeded 

Whisper'd    a    gentle  voice,   in  accents  tender  and 
saintlike, 

'  Gabriel,  oh,  my  beloved  ! '  and  died  away  into  si- 
lence." 

— Longfellow,  Evangeline. 

An  extremely  musical  form  of  blank  verse,  the 
trochaic,  will  be  found  in  Browning's  "  One  Word 
More  "  : 

"  I  shall  never  in  the  years  remaining. 
Paint  you  pictures,  no,  nor  carve  you  statues. 
Make  you  music  that  should  all-express  me  ; 
So  it  seems  ;  I  stand  on  my  attainment : 
This  of  verse  alone  one  life  allows  me  ; 
Verse  and  nothing  else  have  I  to  give  you. 
Other  heights  in  other  loves,  God  willing — 
All  the  gifts  from  all  the  heights,  your  own,  love  !  " 

This  by  no  means  exhausts  the  varieties  of  blank 
verse  ;  but,  as  I  have  already  said,  blank  verse  is,  on 


64 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


the  whole,  scarcely  to  be  commended  to  the  student 
for  practice,  because  it  is,  while  apparently  the  easiest, 
in  reality  the  most  difficult  form  he  could  attempt.  It 
is  in  fact  particularly  easy  to  attain  the  blankness — but 
the  verse  is  another  matter.  The  absence  of  rhymes 
necessitates  the  most  perfect  melody  and  harmony,  if 
the  lines  are  to  be  anything  beyond  prose  chopped-  up 
into  lengths. 

There  are,  I  should  mention  before  closing  this 
chapter,  many  more  styles  of  stanza  than  I  have 
named,  and  many  varieties  of  them.  The  ode  is  of 
somewhat  irregular  construction,  but  it  is,  I  consider, 
beyond  the  scope  of  those  for  whom  this  book  is  in- 
tended, and  it  needs  not  to  be  considered  on  that  ac- 
count. 

[Those  who  seek  a  discussion  of  its  origin  and 
form  may  be  referred  to  the  excellent  volume  of  "  Eng- 
lish Odes,"  selected  and  edited  by  Mr.  Edmund  W. 
Gosse.  This  volume  is  included  in  the  series  of  "  Eng- 
lish Classics,"  now  appearing  at  irregular  intervals. 
It  contains  a  preface,  all  too  brief,  wherein  the  ode  is 
described  and  criticised  with  the  erudition  of  a  scholar 
and  the  sympathy  of  a  poet.] 


CHAPTER   VI. 

OF  RHYME. 

A  RHYME  must  commence  on  an  accented  syl- 
lable. From  the  accented  vowel  of  that  syllable 
to  the  end,  the  two  or  more  words  intended  to  rhyme 
must  be  identical  in  sound ;  but  the  letters  preceding 
the  accented  vowel  must  in  each  case  be  dissimilar  in 
sound.  Thus  "learn,"  "fern,"  "discern,"  are  rhymes, 
with  the  common  sound  of  "  ern  "  preceded  by  the 
dissimilar  sounds  of  "l,""f,"  "sc."  "Possess"  and 
"  recess  "  do  not  rhyme,  having  besides  the  common 
"  ess  "  the  similar  pronunciation  of  the  "  c  "  and  the 
double  "  s  "  preceding  it.  The  letters  "  r  "  and  "  1," 
when  preceded  by  other  consonants,  so  as  practically 
to  form  new  letters,  can  be  rhymed  to  the  simple  "r" 
and  "  1  "  respectively,  thus  "  track  "  and  "  rack," 
"  blame  "  and  "  lame,"  are  rhymes.  The  same  rule 
applies  to  letters  preceded  by  "s,"  "smile"  being  a 
rhyme  to  "  mile."  Similarly  "  h  "  and  its  compound 
rhyme,  e.  g.,  "  shows,"  "  those,"  "  chose,"  and  any  word 
ending  in  "  phose  "  with  "  hose." 

The  aspirate  to  any  but  a  Cockney  would,  of  course, 
pass  as  constituting  the  needful  difference  at  the  be- 


66  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ginning  of  a  rhyme,  as  in  "  heart  "  and  "  art,"  "  hair  " 
and  "  air,"  * 

Rhymes  are  single,  double,  or  treble  —  or  more 
properly  one-syllabled,  two-syllabled,  and  three-syl- 
labled. Rhymes  of  four  or  more  syllables  are  peculiar 
to  burlesque  or  comic  verse.  Indeed,  Dryden  declared 
that  only  one-syllabled  rhymes  were  suitable  for  grave 
subjects  :  but  every  one  must  have  at  his  fingers'  ends 
scores  of  proofs  to  the  contrary,  of  which  I  will  in- 
stance but  one—"  The  Bridge  of  Sighs."  [Perhaps  an 
even  better  example  is  the  magnificent  mediccval  hymn, 
the  "Dies  Irae,"  which  owes  much  of  its  might  to  the 
skillful  employment  of  double  rhymes.] 

Monosyllables  or  polysyllables  accented  on  the  last 
syllable  are  "  single  "  rhymes.  Words  accented  on  the 
penultimate  or  last  syllable  but  one  supply  "double" 
rhymes ;  e.  g.,  agitat'ed,  elat'ed.  When  the  accent  is 
thrown  another  syllable  back,  and  falls  on  the  ante- 
penultimate as  in  "  ar'rogate,"  it  is  in  the  first  place  a 
"  triple  "  rhyme.  But,  as  in  English  there  is  a  tendency 
to  alternate  the  acute  and  grave  accent,  the  trisyllable 

*  It  is  a  curious  confirmation  of  my  theory  about  the  Cock- 
ney grounds  for  objection  to  this  rhyme,  that  the  author  of  a 
hand-book,  who  condemns  "  heart "  and  "art "  as  a  rhyme,  fails 
to  see  any  fault  in  "dawn"  and  "mom,"  or  in  "applaud" 
and  "  aboard  "  as  rhymes.  Of  course,  where  the  "  h  "  is  mute, 
as  in  "hour,"  it  can  not  rhyme  with  the  simple  vowel  as  in 
"  our,"  sound  being  the  test  of  rhyme,  and  the  ear  the  only 
judge.  A  "  rhyme  to  the  eye  "  is  an  impossibility.  [And  else- 
where the  author  aptly  remarked  that  "the  union  of  sound 
alone  constitutes  rhyme.  You  do  not  match  colors  by  the  nose, 
or  sounds  by  the  eye."] 


OF  RHYME. 


(>! 


has  practically  two  rhymes,  a  three-syllabled  and  a 
one-syllabled  —  thus  "  arrogate  "  and  "  Harrogate  " 
rhyme,  but  "  arrogate  "  may  also  pair  off  with  "  mate." 
Nevertheless,  it  is  necessary  to  be  cautious  in  the  use 
of  words  with  this  spurious  accent — it  is  perhaps 
better  still  to  avoid  them.  Such  words  as  "  merri- 
ly," "beautiful,"  "purity,"  ought  never  to  be  used  as 
single-syllabled  rhymes  ;  even  such  words  as  "  meri- 
ted "  and  "  happiness  "  have  a  forced  sound  when  so 
used. 

Elisions  should  be  avoided,  though  "  bow'r  "  and 
"  flow'r  "  may  pass  muster,  with  some  others.  "  Ta'en," 
"e'er,"  "e'en,"  and  such  contractions  may,  of  course, 
be  used.  The  articles,  prepositions,  and  such,  can  not 
in  serious  verse  stand  as  rhymes,  under  the  same  rule 
which  condemns  the  separation  of  the  adjective  from 
its  substantive  in  the  next  line. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  premise  that  to  write 
verse  decently  the  student  must  have  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  grammar.  From  ignorance  on  that 
score  arise  naturally  blemishes  enough  to  destroy 
verse,  as  they  would  poetry,  almost.  I  have  seen 
verses  which,  beginning  by  apostrophizing  some  one 
as  "thou,"  slipped  in  a  few  lines  into  "yours"  and 
"  you  " — or,  worse  still,  have  said  "  thou  doeth,"  or 
"thou,  who  is." 

Expletives  and  mean  expressions  also  must  be  ex- 
cluded. The  verse  should  never  soar  to  "  highfalutin," 
or  sink  to  commonplace  language.  Simplicity  is  not 
commonplace,  and  nobility  is  not  "  highfalutin,"  and 
they  should  be  aimed  at  accordingly ;  when  you  have 
5 


68  THE  RHYMESTER. 

acquired  the  one,  you  will  as  a  rule  find  the  other  in 
its  company. 

When  three  or  more  lines  are  intended  to  rhyme 
together,  the  common  base  or  accented  vowel  in  each 
instance  must  be  preceded  by  a  different  sound.  For 
example,  "  born,"  "  corn,"  and  "  borne,"  will  not  serve 
for  a  triplet,  because,  though  the  first  and  third  are 
both  rhymes  to  the  second,  they  are  not  rhymes  to 
each  other. 

It  is  as  well,  unless  you  are  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  pronunciation  of  foreign  languages,  to  abstain 
from  using  them  in  verse,  especially  in  rhymes.  I  met 
with  the  following  instance  of  the  folly  of  such  rhyming 
in  a  magazine,  not  long  ago  : 

"  Prim  Monsieurs  fresh  from  Boulogne's  Bois  .  .  . 
For  these  the  Row's  a  certain  draw." 

This  is  about  as  elegant  as  rhyming  "  Boulogne  "  and 
"  Song." 

It  is  wise — on  the  principle  of  rhyme,  the  difference 
of  sounds  preceding  the  common  base — to  avoid  any 
similarity  by  combination.  For  example,  "  is  "  is  a 
good  rhyme  for  "  'tis,"  but  you  should  be  careful  not 
to  let  "  it "  immediately  precede  the  "  is,"  as  it  mars 
the  necessary  dissimilarity  of  the  opening  sound  of  the 
two  rhymes. 

Let  the  beginner  remember  one  thing :  rhyme  is  a 
fetter,  undoubtedly.  Let  him  therefore  refrain  from 
attempting  measures  with  frequent  rhymes,  for  experi- 
ence alone  can  give  ease  in  such  essays.  Only  the 
skilled  can  dance  gracefully  in  fetters.     Moreover,  a 


OF  RHYME. 


69 


too  frequent  repetition  of  rhyme  at  short  intervals  gives 
a  jigginess  to  the  verse.  It  is  on  this  account  that  the 
use  in  a  Hne  of  a  sound  similar  to  the  rhyme  should 
be  avoided.  This  does  not  apply  to  the  generous  use 
of  a  rhyme  at  the  half-line  to  mark  the  csesural  pause, 
as  in  this  line  : 

"  'Twas  in  the  prime  of  summer  time." 

Nor  is  there  any  objection — but  rather  the  contrary — 
to  the  use  of  two  rhyming  words  in  a  line,  provided 
they  are  not  identical  with  the  final  rhymes,  as  for 

example : 

"  That  thrice  the  human  span 
Through  gale  and  hail  and  fiery  bolt 
Had  stood  erect  as  man." 

[There  is  a  more  unexpected  and  dehghtful  use  of 
this  internal  rhyme  in  one  of  Mr.  Frederick  Locker's 
charming  "  London  Lyrics  "  : 

"  Arise  then,  and  lazy 

Regrets  from  thee  fling. 
For  sorrows  that  hazy 

To-morrows  may  bring  !  "] 

As  a  final  warning,  let  me  entreat  the  writer  of 
verses  to  examine  his  rhymes  carefully,  and  see  that 
they  chime  to  an  educated  ear.  Such  atrocities  as 
"  mom  "  and  "  dawn,"  "  more  "  and  "  sure,"  "  light 
in  "  and  "  writing,"  "  fought  "  and  "  sort,"  are  fatal  to 
the  success  of  verse.  They  stamp  it  with  vulgarity,  as 
surely  as  the  dropping  of  the  "  h  "  stamps  a  speaker. 
Furthermore,  do  not  make  a  trisyllabic  of  a  dissyl- 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


lable  —  as,  for  instance,  by  pronouncing  "ticklish" 
"  tick-el-ish,"  and  if  you  have  cause  to  rhyme  "iron," 
try  "environ"  or  "Byron,"  not  "my  urn,"  because 
only  the  vulgar  pronounce  it  "  iern,"  or  "  apron  " 
"  apern,"  etc. 

[And  as  a  final  note  it  may  be  well  to  give  a  list 
of  a  few  of  the  English  words  that  have  no  rhyme  : 


Bilge, 

Gulf, 

Rhomb, 

Chimney, 

Have, 

Scarce, 

Coif, 

Kiln, 

Scarf, 

Crimson, 

Microcosm, 

Silver, 

Culm, 

Month, 

Widow, 

Cusp, 

Mouth  (verb), 

Window.] 

Fugue, 

Oblige. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

OF   FIGURES. 

THE  figures  most  commonly  used  in  verse  are  simi- 
les and  metaphors.  A  simile  is  a  figure  whereby 
one  thing  is  likened  to  another.  It  is  ushered  in  by  a 
"  like  "  or  an  "  as." 

"  Like  sportive  deer  they  coursed  about." 

— Hood,  Eugene  Aram. 

"  Such  a  brow 
His  eyes  had  to  live  under,  clear  as  flint." 

— Brotuning,  A  Contemporary. 

"  Resembles  sorrow  only 
As  the  mist  resembles  rain." 

— Longfellow,  The  Day  is  Done. 

"  Look  how  a  man  is  lower'd  to  his  grave  .  .  . 
So  is  he  sunk  into  the  yawning  wave." 

— Hood,  Hero  and  Leander. 

A  metaphor  is  a  figure  whereby  the  one  thing,  in- 
stead of  being  likened  to  the  other,  is,  as  it  were,  trans- 
formed into  it,  and  is  described  as  doing  what  it  (the 
other)  does. 


72  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Poetry  is 
The  grandest  chariot  wherein  king-thoughts  ride." 

— Smith,  Life  Drama. 

"  The  anchor,  whose  giant  hand 
Would  reach  down  and  grapple  with  the  land." 

— Longfellow,  Building  of  the  Ship. 

Sometimes  the  two  are  united  in  one  passage,  as 
in — 

"  The  darkness 
Falls  from  the  wings  of  night, 
As  a  feather  is  wafted  downward." 

— Longfellow,  The  Day  is  Done. 

The  last  line  is  a  simile,  but  "  the  wings  of  night  " 
is  metaphorical.  "  A  simile,"  says  Johnson,  "  to  be 
perfect,  must  both  illustrate  and  ennoble  the  subject ; 
but  either  of  these  qualities  may  be  sufficient  to  recom- 
mend it." 

Alliteration,  when  not  overdone,  is  an  exquisite  ad- 
dition to  the  charm  of  verse.  The  Poet  Laureate  thor- 
oughly understands  its  value.  Mr.  Swinburne  allows 
it  too  frequently  to  run  riot.  Edgar  Allan  Poe  carried 
it  to  extravagance.     I  select  an  example  from  each  : 

"  The  moan  of  doves  in  immemorial  elms, 
And  murmur  of  innumerable  bees." 

—  Tennyson. 

"  The  lilies  and  languors  of  virtue, 
For  the  raptures  and  roses  of  vice." 

— Swinburne,  Dolores. 


OF  FIGURES. 


73 


"  Come  up  through  the  lair  of  the  lion 
With  love  in  her  luminous  eyes." 

— Poe,  Ulaliime. 

The  instance  from  the  Poet  Laureate  is  a  strong 
one — the  repetition  of  the  "  m  "  is  to  express  the  sound 
of  the  bees  and  the  elms.  The  alternation  in  the  others 
is  only  pleasing  to  the  ear,  and  the  artifice  in  the  last 
instance  certainly  is  too  obvious.  In  the  Poet  Laure- 
ate's lines  the  alliteration  is  so  ingeniously  contrived 
that  one  scarcely  would  suppose  there  are  as  many  as 
seven  repetitions  of  the  "m."  In  Poe's,  one  is  sur- 
prised to  find  the  apparent  excess  of  alliteration  is  due 
to  but  four  repetitions.  But  the  "  I's "  are  identical 
with  the  strongest  beats  in  the  hne,  whereas  the  "m's" 
in  Tennyson's  line  are  interspersed  with  other  letters  at 
the  beats.  He  uses  this  artifice  more  frequently  than 
those  would  suspect  who  have  not  closely  examined 
his  poems,  for  he  thoroughly  appreciates  the  truth  of 
the  maxim,  ars  est  celare  artem*  A  few  lines  from 
"  The  Princess  "  will  illustrate  this  : 

"  The  baby  that  by  us, 
Half-lapt  in  glowing  gauze  and  golden  brede, 
Lay  like  a  new-fall'n  meteor  on  the  grass. 
Uncared-for,  spied  its  mother  and  began 
A  blind  and  babbling  laughter,  and  to  dance 
Its  body,  and  reach  its  falling  innocent  arms 
And  lazy  ling'ring  fingers." 

*  "  'Tis  the  highest  art  to  hide  all  art." 


74  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Here  a  careful  study  will  reveal  alliteration  within 
alliteration,  and  yet  the  effect  is  perfect,  for  there  is  no 
sign  of  labor. 

Elision  must  be  used  with  a  sparing  hand.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  a  vowel  that  is  so  slightly  pronounced 
that  it  can  be  elided,  as  in  "temperance" — "tem- 
p'rance,"  may  just  as  well  be  left  in,  and  accounted 
for  by  managing  to  get  the  "quantity"  to  cover  it. 
Where  it  is  too  strongly  pronounced,  to  cut  it  out  is  to 
disfigure  and  injure  the  line,  as  in  the  substitution  of 
"  wall'wing  "  for  "  wallowing."  That  elision  is  often 
used  unnecessarily  may  be  seen  in  the  frequency  with 
which,  in  reading  verse,  we — according  to  most  au- 
thorities— ehde  the  "  y  "  of  "  many  " : 

"  Full  many  a  flower  is  doom'd  to  blush  unseen." — Gray. 

Here  we  are  told  we  elide  the  "y"  of  "many,"  and 
some  would  replace  "  flower  "  by  "  fllow'r."  Yet  to  the 
most  sensitive  ear  these  may  receive,  in  reading,  their 
share  of  pronunciation,  without  damage  to  the  flow  of 
the  line,  if  the  reader  understands  quantity.  "  To  "  is 
often  similarly  "ehded,"  as  in — 

"  Can  he  to  a  friend — to  a  son  so  bloody  grow  ?  " — Cowley. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  as  well  not  to  make  too 
frequent  use  of  the  accented  "ed,"  as  in  "amazed." 
In  "beloved"  and  a  few  more  words  it  is  commonly 
used,  and  does  not,  therefore,  sound  strange.  In  others 
it  gives  a  forced  and  botched  air  to  the  verse. 

In  verse  some  latitude  is  allowed  in  arranging  the 
order  of  words  in  a  sentence,  but  it  must  not  be  in- 


OF  FIGURES. 


75 


dulged  in  too  freely.  A  study  of  the  style  of  our  best 
poets  is  the  only  means  of  learning  what  is  allowable 
and  what  is  not ;  it  is  impossible  to  explain  it  within  the 
limits  of  this  treatise.  It  may,  however,  be  laid  down, 
as  a  first  principle,  that  no  change  in  the  order  of  words 
is  admissible,  if  it  gives  rise  to  any  doubt  as  to  their 
real  meaning — for  example,  if  you  wish  to  say,  "  the 
dog  bit  the  cat,"  although  such  an  inversion  of  con- 
struction as  putting  the  objective  before  and  the  nomi- 
native after  the  verb  is  allowed  in  verse,  it  is  scarcely 
advisable  to  adopt  it,  and  say,  "  the  cat  bit  the  dog. " 
[In  vers  de  societe  inversion  is  forbidden,  as  that  kind 
of  v'erse  is  supposed  to  be  a  rhyming  of  the  clever  talk 
of  clever  people — in  which,  of  course,  the  cart  would 
never  be  put  before  the  horse.  An  inversion  always 
gives  a  sense  of  constraint  and  conscious  effort.  Note 
how  few  inversions  there  are  in  Mr.  Austin  Dobson's 
"  Vignettes  in  Rhyme."] 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

OF   BURLESQUE   AND    COMIC   VERSE,    AND 
VERS  DE  SOCIETE. 

T  T  will  be  as  well  for  the  reader  to  divest  himself  at 
-*-  once  of  the  notion  that  verse  of  this  class  is  the 
lowest  and  easiest  form  he  can  essay,  or  that  the  rules 
which  govern  it  are  more  lax  than  those  which  sway 
serious  composition.  The  exact  contrary  is  the  case. 
Comic  or  burlesque  verse  is  ordinary  verse  phis  some- 
thing. Ordinary  verse  may  pass  muster  if  its  manner 
be  finished,  but  comic  verse  must  have  some  matter  as 
well.  Yet  it  does  not  on  that  account  claim  any  license 
in  rhyme,  for  it  lacks  the  gravity  and  importance  of 
theme  which  may  at  times,  in  serious  poetry,  be  plead- 
ed as  outweighing  a  faulty  rhyme. 

This  style  of  writing  needs  skill  in  devising  novel 
and  startling  turns  of  rhyme,  rhythm,  or  construction, 
and  can  hardly  be  employed  by  those  who  do  not  possess 
some  articulate  wit  or  humor — that  is  to  say,  the  power 
of  expressing,  not  merely  of  appreciating  those  qualities, 

A  defective  rhyme  is  a  fault  in  serious  verse — it  is  a 
crime  in  comic.  It  is  no  sin  to  be  ignorant  of  Greek 
or  Latin,  but  it  is  worse  than  a  blunder,  under  such 


OF  BURLESQUE  AND   COMIC    VERSE.     77 

circumstances,  to  quote  them,  and  quote  them  incor- 
rectly. In  the  same  way,  one  is  not  compelled  to  write 
comic  verse ;  but  if  he  does  write  it,  and  can  not  do  so 
correctly,  he  deserves  severe  handling. 

One  of  the  leading  characteristics  of  this  style  is 
dexterous  rhyming — and-  the  legerdemain  must  be  ef- 
fected with  genuine  coin,  not  dumps.  In  the  very  de- 
gree that  clever  composite  rhyming  assists  in  making 
the  verse  sparkling  and  effective,  it  must  bear  the  closest 
scrutiny  and  analyzation — must  be  real  Moet,  not  goose- 
berry. 

All,  then,  that  has  been  said  with  regard  to  serious 
verse  applies  with  double  force  to  the  lighter  form  of 
vers  de  socu^tt'.  According  to  the  definition  of  Mr. 
Frederick  Locker,  no  mean  authority,  vers  de  sociiti 
should  be  "  short,  elegant,  refined,  and  fanciful,  not 
seldom  distinguished  by  chastened  sentiment,  and  often 
playful.  The  tone  should  not  be  pitched  high;  it 
should  be  idiomatic,  and  rather  in  the  conversational 
key ;  the  rhythm  should  be  crisp  and  sparkling,  and 
the  rhyme  frequent,  and  never  forced,  while  the  entire 
poem  should  be  marked  by  tasteful  moderation,  high 
finish,  and  completeness  :  for,  however  trivial  the  sub- 
ject-matter may  be — indeed,  rather  in  proportion  to  its 
triviality — subordination  to  the  rules  of  composition, 
and  perfection  of  executiofi,  should  be  strictly  etiforced." 

Let  me  entreat  the  reader  to  bear  that  italicized  sen- 
tence in  memory  when  writing  any  style  of  verse,  but 
most  especially  when  he  essays  the  comic  or  burlesque. 

No  precedent  for  laxity  can  be  pleaded  because  the 
poets  who  have  at  times  indulged  in  such  trifling  have 


78  THE  RHYMESTER. 

therein  availed  themselves  of  the  licenses  which  they 
originally  took  out  for  loftier  writing.  Noti  se77iper 
arcwn  tendit  Apollo,  *  and  the  poet  may  be  excused 
for  striking  his  lyre  with  careless  fingers.  But  we,  who 
do  not  pretend  to  possess  lyres,  must  be  careful  about 
the  fingering  of  our  kits.  Apollo's  slackened  bow 
offers  no  precedent  for  the  popgun  of  the  poetaster. 

As  I  have  already  said,  much  of  the  merit  of  this 
style  depends  on  the  scintillations,  so  to  speak,  of  its 
rhymes.  They  must  therefore  be  perfect.  When  But- 
ler wrote  the  much-quoted  couplet : 

"  When  pulpit,  drum  ecclesiastick, 
Was  beat  with  fist  instead  of  a  stick," 

he  was  guilty  of  coupling  "  astick  "  and  "  a  stick  "  to- 
gether as  a  rhyme,  which  they  do  not  constitute.  But 
he  who  on  that  account  claims  privilege  to  commit  a 
similar  offense,  not  only  is  guilty  of  the  vanity  of  de- 
manding to  be  judged  on  the  same  level  as  Butler,  but 
is  illogical.  Two  wrongs  can  not  constitute  a  right, 
and  all  the  bad  rhyming  in  the  world  can  be  no  extenu- 
ation of  a  repetition  of  the  offense. 

The  results  of  carelessness  in  such  matters  are  but 
too  apparent !  The  slipshod  that  has  been  for  so  long 
suffered  to  pass  for  comic  verse,  has  brought  the  art 
into  disrepute.  In  the  case  of  burlesque,  this  is  even 
more  plainly  discernible.  It  is  held  in  so  small  esteem 
that  people  have  come  to  forget  that  it  boasts  Aris- 
tophanes as  its  founder !  Halting  measures,  cockney 
rhymes,  and  mere  play  on  sound,  instead  of  sense,  in 

*  "  Apollo  does  not  always  bend  the  bow." 


OF  BURLESQUE  AND   COMIC    VERSE.     79 

punning,  have  gone  near  to  being  the  death  of  what  at 
its  worst  was  an  amusing  pastime,  at  its  best  was 
healthy  satire. 

The  purchase  of  half  a  dozen  modern  burlesques 
will  account  for  the  declining  popularity  of  burlesque. 
All  of  them  will  be  found  defaced  by  defective  rhymes, 
and  cockneyisms  too  common  to  provoke  a  smile.  In 
the  majority  of  them  the  decasyllabic  meter  will  be 
found  to  range  from  six  or  eight  syllables  to  twelve  or 
fourteen  !  Most  bear  the  same  relation  to  real  bur- 
lesque-writing that  the  school-boy's  picture  of  his  mas- 
ter—a circle  for  head  and  four  scratches  for  arms  and 
legs — bears  to  genuine  caricature.  [Much  of  the  suc- 
cess of  Mr.  W.  S.  Gilbert's  comic  operas  is  due  to  the 
variety  of  his  verse,  to  the  unexpectedness  of  his 
rhymes,  and  to  the  apt  choice  of  musical  rhythms.] 

The  most  telling  form  of  rhyme  in  comic  versifica- 
tion is  the  polysyllabic,  and  the  greater  the  number  of 
assonant  syllables  in  such  rhymes  the  more  effective 
they  prove.  The  excellence  is  co-extensive,  however, 
with  the  unexpectedness  and  novelty,  and  there  is 
therefore  but  small  merit  in  such  a  polysyllabic  rhyme 

as — 

"  From  Scotland's  mountains  down  he  came. 
And  straightway  up  to  town  he  came." 

This  merely  consists  of  the  single  rhymes  "  down  " 
and  "town,"  with  "he  came"  as  a  common  affix. 
Such  polysyllabics  may  be  admitted  here  and  there  in 
a  long  piece,  but,  when  they  constitute  the  whole  or 
even  a  majority  of  the  rhymes,  the  writer  is  imposing 
on  his  readers.    He  is  swelling  his  balance  at  his  bank- 


8o  THE  RHYMESTER. 

er's  by  adding  noughts  on  the  right  hand  of  the  pounds' 
figure  without  paying  in  the  cash. 

Another  feature  of  this  style  of  verse  is  the  repeti- 
tion of  rhymes.  Open  the  "  Ingoldsby  Legends,"  * 
which  may  be  taken  as  the  foundation  of  one  school  of 
comic  verse,  and  you  will  scarcely  fail  to  light  upon  a 
succession  of  rhymes,  coming  one  aftet"  the  other,  like 
a  string  of  boys  at  leap-frog,  as  if  the  well-spring  of 
rhyme  were  inexhaustible. 

Although  punning  scarcely  comes  within  the  scope 
of  this  treatise,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  remind  those 
who  may  desire  to  essay  comic  verse,  that  a  pun  is  a 
^ov^X^-meaning .  It  is  not  sufficient  to  get  two  words 
that  clink  alike,  or  to  torture  by  mispronunciation  a  re- 
semblance in  sound  between  words  or  combinations  of 
words.  There  must  be  an  echo  in  the  sense — "  a  like- 
ness in  unlikeness  "  in  the  idea. 

Proper  names  should  not  be  used  as  rhymes.  The 
only  exception  is  in  the  case  of  any  real  individual  of 
note — a  statesman,  author,  or  actor,  when  to  find  a 
telling  rhyme  to  the  name,  a  rhyme  suggestive  of  the 
habits  or  pursuits  of  the  owner  of  that  name,  has  some 
merit,  especially  if  the  name  be  long  and  peculiar.  But 
to  introduce  an  imaginary  name  for  the  sake  of  a  rhyme, 
is  work  that  is  too  cheap  to  be  good.  A  child  can 
write  such  rhyme  as — 

"  A  man  of  strict  veracity 
Was  Peter  James  M'Assity." 

*  I  would,  however,  warn  the  beginner  not  to  adopt  the 
license  of  loose  rhyming,  which  in  Barham  is  lost  sight  of  amid 
the  brightness  of  the  wit. — (T.  H.) 


OF  BURLESQUE  AND   COMIC    VERSE.     8l 

In  composite  rhyming  the  greatest  care  should  be 
taken  to  see  that  each  syllable  after  the  first  is  identical 
in  sound  in  each  line.  In  "  use  he  was  "  and  "  juicy 
was,"  the  "  h  "  destroys  the  rhyme,  and  the  difference 
in  sound  in  the  last  syllable  (however  carelessly  pro- 
nounced) between  such  words  as  "  oakum  "  and  "  smoke 
'em  "  has  a  similar  disqualifying  power.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  refer  to  such  inadmissible  couples  as 
"  protector  "  and  "  neglect  her,"  "  birching  "  and  "  ur- 
chin," "  oracle  "  and  "  historical." 

One  trick  in  rhyming  is  often  very  effective,  but  it 
must  not  be  put  into  force  too  often.  In  some  in- 
stances, however,  it  tells  with  great  comical  effect,  by 
affording  a  rhyme  to  a  word  which  at  first  glance  the 
reader  thinks  it  is  impossible  to  rhyme.  Canning,  in 
the  "  Anti-Jacobin,"  used  it  with  ludicrous  effect  in 
Rogero's  song,  and  a  few  lines  from  that  will  illustrate 
and  explain  the  trick  I  allude  to  : 

"  Here  doom'd  to  starve  on  water  gru- 
-el,  never  shall  I  see  the  U- 

-niversity  of  Gottingen  !  " 

Here  the  division  of  the  words  "  gruel  "  and  "  Uni- 
versity "  has  an  extremely  absurd  effect.  But  the  arti- 
fice must  be  used  sparingly,  and  those  who  employ  it 
must  beware  of  one  pitfall.  The  moiety  of  the  word 
which  is  carried  over  to  begin  the  next  line  must  be 
considered  as  a  fresh  word  occupying  the  first  foot. 
There  is  a  tendency  to  overlook  it,  and  count  it  as  part 
of  the  previous  Une,  and  that  of  course  is  a  fatal 
error. 


82  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Parody  may  be  considered  as  a  form  of  comic  versi- 
fication. It  is  not  enough  that  a  parody  should  be  in 
the  same  meter  as  the  original  poem  it  imitates.  Nor 
is  it  sufficient  that  the  first  hne  or  so  has  such  a  simi- 
larity as  to  suggest  the  original.  In  the  best  parodies 
each  line  of  the  original  has  an  echo  in  the  parody,  and 
the  words  of  the  former  are  retained  as  far  as  possible 
in  the  latter,  or  replaced  by  others  very  similar. 

Another  form  of  parody  is  the  parody  of  style, 
w^hen,  instead  of  selecting  a  particular  poem  to  para- 
phrase, we  imitate,  in  verse  modeled  on  the  form  he 
usually  adopts,  the  mannerisms  of  thought  or  expres- 
sion for  which  any  particular  writer  is  distinguished. 

Examples  of  both  kinds  of  parody  will  be  found  in 
the  "  Rejected  Addresses  "  of  James  and  Horace  Smith, 
which  should  be  studied  together  with  Hood,  Barham, 
Wolcot,  and  Thackeray,  by  those  who  would  read  the 
best  models  of  humorous,  comic,  or  burlesque  writing. 
I  may  add  here  that  vers  de  socicti  will  be  best  studied 
in  the  writings  of  Praed,  Prior,  and  Moore.  From  liv- 
ing writers  it  would  be  invidious  to  single  out  any,  either 
as  models  or  warnings.  [Thus  far  had  the  author 
written  eight  years  ago  :  to-day  the  editor  feels  he 
would  be  derelict  to  his  duty  did  he  not  advise  the  stu- 
dent of  vers  de  societi — which  are  something  more 
than  mere  "  society  verse  " — of  Dr.  Holmes,  Mr.  E.  C. 
Stedman,  and  Mr.  Austin  Dobson.  More  broadly 
comic  verse  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  W.  S.  Gilbert's  "  Bab 
Ballads  "  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Calverley's  "  Fly  Leaves."  Nor 
should  the  poetry  of  Mr.  Bret  Harte  be  neglected.] 


CHAPTER   IX. 

OF     SONG- WRITING. 

A  LTHOUGH  song-writing  is  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
■^^  cult  styles  of  versification,  it  is  now  held  in  but 
little  repute,  owing  to  the  unfortunate  condition  of  the 
musical  world  in  England.  "  Any  rubbish  will  do  for 
music  "  is  the  maxim  of  the  music  shop-keeper,  who  is 
practically  the  arbiter  of  the  art  nowadays,  and  who 
has  the  interests  he  is  supposed  to  represent  so  little 
at  heart  that  he  would  not  scruple  to  publish  songs, 
consisting  of  "  nonsense  verses  " — as  school-boys  call 
them — set  to  music,  if  he  thought  that  the  usual  artifice 
of  paying  singers  a  royalty  on  the  sale  for  singing  a 
song  would  prevail  on  the  public  to  buy  them. 

Another  reason  why  "  any  rubbish  will  do  for 
music  "  has  passed  into  a  proverb  is,  that  few  amateur 
singers — and  not  too  many  professionals — understand 
"  phrasing."  How  rarely  can  one  hear  what  the  words 
of  a  song  are  !  Go  to  a  "  musical  evening  "  and  take 
note,  and  you  will  see  that,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
when  a  new  song  has  been  sung,  people  take  the  piece 
of  music  and  look  over  the  words.  A  song  is  like  a 
cherry,  and  ought  not  to  require  us  to  make  two  bites 
at  it. 

6 


84  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Nor  is  the  injury  inflicted  on  music  due  only  to  the 
amount  of  rubbish  which  is  made  to  do  duty  for  songs. 
The  writings  of  our  poets  are  ransacked  for  "words," 
and  accompaniments  are  manufactured  to  poems  which 
were  never  intended,  and  are  absolutely  unfitted,  for 
musical  treatment.  Then,  because  it  is  found  that 
poems  are  not  to  be  converted  into  songs  so  easily  as 
people  think,  the  cry  is  not  merely  that  "  any  rubbish 
will  do  for  songs,"  but  that  ''only  rubbish  will  do  " — a 
cry  that  is  vigorously  taken  up  by  interested  persons. 

The  truth  lies  between  the  two  extremes.  A  pecu- 
liar style  of  verse  is  required,  marked  by  such  charac- 
teristics and  so  difficult  of  attainment  that  some  of 
our  greatest  poets — Byron  for  one — have  failed  as  song- 
writers. English  literature  reckons  but  few  really  good 
song-writers.  When  you  have  named  Moore,  Lover, 
Burns,  and  Barry  Cornwall,  you  have  almost  exhausted 
the  list. 

There  is  in  the  last  edition  of  the  works  of  the 
lamented  writer  I  have  just  named — Samuel  Lover — a 
preface  in  which  he  enters  very  minutely  into  the  sub- 
ject of  song-writing.  The  sum  of  what  he  says  is, 
that  "  the  song  being  necessarily  of  brief  compass,  the 
writer  must  have  powers  of  condensation.  He  must 
possess  ingenuity  in  the  management  of  meter.  He 
must  frame  it  of  open  vowels,  with  as  few  guttural  or 
hissing  sounds  as  possible,  and  he  must  be  content 
sometimes  to  sacrifice  grandeur  or  vigor  to  the  neces- 
sity of  selecting  singing  words  and  not  reading  ones." 
He  adds  that  "  the  simplest  words  best  suit  song,  but 
simplicity  must  not  descend  to  baldness.     There  must 


OF  SONG-WRITING.  85 

be  a  thought  in  the  song,  gracefully  expressed,  and  it 
must  appeal  either  to  the  fancy  or  feelings,  or  both, 
but  rather  by  suggestion  than  direct  appeal ;  and  phi- 
losophy and  didactics  must  be  eschewed." 

He  adduces  Shelley,  with  his  intense  poetry  and 
exquisite  sensitiveness  to  sweet  sounds,  as  an  instance 
of  a  poet  who  failed  to  see  the  exact  necessities  of 
song-writing,  and  giv'es  a  quotation  from  one  of  Shel- 
ley's "  songs  "  to  prove  this.     The  line  is  : 

"  The  fresh  earth  in  new  leaves  drest," 

and  he  says  verj^  pertinently,  "  It  is  a  sweet  line,  and  a 
pleasant  image — but  I  defy  any  one  to  sing  it :  nearly 
every  word  shuts  up  the  mouth  instead  of  opening  it." 
That  last  sentence  is  the  key  to  song-writing.  I  use 
the  word  song-writing  in  preference  to  "  lyrical  writ- 
ing," because  "  lyrical  "  has  been  warped  from  its  strict 
meaning,  and  applied  to  verse  which  was  not  intended 
for  music.  It  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  a  song- 
writer should  have  a  practical  knowledge  of  music, 
but  it  is  all  the  better  if  he  have  :  beyond  doubt,  Moore 
owed  much  of  his  success  to  his  possession  of  musical 
knowledge. 


CHAPTER   X. 

OF    THE    SONNET, 

ANY  discussion  of  the  sonnet  is  handling-  a  burning 
question.  We  are  not  at  the  threshold  of  the 
discussion  by  the  query,  What  is  a  sonnet  ?  And  on 
the  answer  to  this  the  whole  discussion  turns.  A  son- 
net is  a  poem  containing  one,  and  only  one,  idea,  thought, 
or  sentiment,  and  consisting  of  fourteen  lines  of  equal 
length — so  much  is  admitted  by  all.  There  are  those 
who  consider  any  poem  of  fourteen  lines  a  sonnet. 
There  are  others  who  declare  that  to  be  a  true  sonnet 
the  poem  must  not  only  have  fourteen  lines  of  equal 
length,  but  its  construction  and  the  arrangement  of  its 
rhymes  must  conform  to  a  prescribed  pattern,  called 
after  Petrarch.  Sonnets  written  in  the  Petrarchan  or 
Guittonian  form  are  "  regular  "  or  "  correct "  ;  all  others 
are  "  irregular  "  and  "  incorrect."  A  regular  sonnet 
consists  of  two  quatrains  (in  which  the  ist,  4th,  5th, 
and  8th  lines  rhyme  together,  and  likewise  the  2d,  3d, 
6th,  and  7th),  followed  by  two  tercets  (in  which  the 
9th,  nth,  and  13th  Hues  rhyme  together,  and  likewise 
the  loth,  1 2th,  and  14th),  thus: 


OF   THE   SONNET. 


FREDERICKSBURG. 


87 


"  The  increasing  moonlight  drifts  across  my.  bed, 
And  on  the  churchyard  by  the  road,  I  know, 
It  falls  as  white  and  noiselessly  as  snow. 

'Twas  such  a  night  two  weary  summers  fled  ; 

The  stars  as  now  were  waning  overhead. 

Listen  !     Again  the  shrill-lipped  bugles  blow 
Where  the  swift  currents  of  the  river  flow 

Past  Fredericksburg  ;  far  off  the  heavens  are  red 

With  sudden  conflagration  :  on  yon  height, 

Linstock  in  hand,  the  gunners  hold  their  breath  ; 

A  signal-rocket  pierces  the  dense  night, 

Flings  its  spent  stars  upon  the  town  beneath  ; 

Hark  ! — the  artillery  massing  on  the  right, 

Hark  ! — the  black  squadrons  wheeling  down  to  death." 
—  T.  B.  Aldtich,  Fredericksburg. 

Mr.  Waddington,  in  a  "  Note  on  the  Sonnet,"  at  the 
end  of  his  collection  of  "  English  Sonnets  by  Living 
Writers  "  (London,  1881),  tells  us  that  about  one  third 
of  Petrarch's  sonnets  are  written  in  this  form,  and  most 
of  Ariosto's.  But  the  arrangement  most  often  adopted 
by  the  Italian  poets  has  been  to  employ  a  fifth  rhyme 
in  the  sestet,  so  that  the  9th  and  12th  lines  rhyme  to- 
gether, the  loth  and  13th,  and  the  nth  and  14th.  Here 
is  an  admirable  example  : 

"  What  is  a  sonnet?     'Tis  a  pearly  shell 

That  murmurs  of  the  far-off"  murmuring  sea  ; 
A  precious  jewel  carved  most  curiously  ; 
It  is  a  Httle  picture  painted  well. 


88  THE  RHYMESTER. 

What  is  a  sonnet  ?     'Tis  the  tear  that  fell 
From  a  great  poet's  hidden  ecstasy  ; 
A  two-edged  sword,  a  star,  a  song — ah  me  ! 
Sometimes  a  heavy-tolling  funeral  bell. 
This  was  the  flame  that  shook  with  Dante's  breath, 
The  solemn  organ  whereon  Milton  played. 

And  the  clear  glass  where  Shakespeare's  shadow 
falls  : 
A  sea  this  is — beware  who  ventureth  ! 
For  like  a  fiord  the  narrow  floor  is  laid 

Deep  as  mid-ocean  to  sheer  mountain  walls." 

—R.  W.  Gilder. 

Strictly,  these  two  forms  only  are  entitled  to  be 
called  "  correct  "  and  "  regular."  But  even  the  purists 
are  willing  generally  to  allow  variety  in  the  sequence 
of  rhymes  in  the  sestet.  It  is  the  octave  in  which  there 
must  be  no  variation.  So  long  as  the  sestet  contains 
two  or  three  rhymes,  and  does  not  end  with  a  couplet, 
the  sonnet  is  tolerated.  In  the  following  fine  son- 
net the  divergence  from  the  accepted  form  is  so  slight 
that  it  is  forgiven  : 

"  HOMER'S   ODYSSEY. 

"  As  one  that  for  a  weary  space  has  lain 

Lulled  by  the  song  of  Circe  and  her  wine 
In  gardens  near  the  pale  of  Proserpine, 
Where  that  ^gean  isle  forgets  the  main. 
And  only  the  low  lutes  of  love  complain. 
And  only  shadows  of  wan  lovers  pine. 
As  such  an  one  were  glad  to  know  the  brine 
Salt  on  his  lips,  and  the  large  air  again, 


OF   THE    SONNET.  89 

So  gladly  from  the  songs  of  modern  speech 
Men  turn  and  see  the  stars,  and  feel  the  free 
Shrill  wind  beyond  the  close  of  heavy  flowers, 
And  through  the  music  of  the  languid  hours 
They  hear,  like  ocean  on  a  western  beach, 
The  surge  and  thunder  of  the  Odyssey." 

— A.  Lang. 

As  soon,  however,  as  we  abandon  the  arrangement 
of  an  octave  turning  on  two  rhymes  and  a  sestet  turn- 
ing on  two  or  three  rhymes  at  will,  we  must  give  up 
all  claim  to  regularity  or  correctness.  To  a  purist 
Shakespeare's  sonnets  are  not  sonnets  at  all,  however 
beautiful  they  may  be  as  poems.  They  are  "  quator- 
zains,"  if  you  will — poems  of  fourteen  lines,  or,  as  Charles 
Lamb  called  them,  "  fourteeners  " — but  they  are  not 
"  sonnets."  Howe\'er  irregular  the  form,  and  however 
inferior  to  the  true  Guittonian  arrangement,  it  has  been 
sanctified  by  genius.  What  Shakespeare  found  fit  for 
his  use,  no  meaner  man  may  deem  inadequate.  Yet 
we  may  agree  with  Mr.  Waddington  that  the  "  Guit- 
tonian variation  is  the  best,  and  few  poets,  after  once 
having  become  accustomed  to  it,  ever  return  to  the 
looser  construction  and  less  frequent  rhymes  of  the 
other  forms."  It  is  perhaps  not  hazardous  to  say  that 
the  strict  sonnet  is  driving  out  the  mere  "  fourteener." 
Most  of  the  younger  poets  are  purists,  and  it  is  well 
that  this  is  so ;  but  many  of  the  elder  American  poets — 
notably  Lowell  and  Mrs.  Kemble — claim  the  utmost 
license;  and  even  a  poet  as  finished  in  form  as  Mr. 
Frederick  Locker  has  written  a  lovely  sonnet  on  the 
Shakespearean  model : 


90 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


"  LOVE,    TIME,    AND    DEATH. 

"  Ah  me,  dread  friends  of  mine — Love,  Time,  and  Death  ! 

Sweet  Love,  who  came  to  me  on  sheeny  wing. 
And  gave  her  to  my  arms — ^her  lips,  her  breath. 

And  all  her  golden  ringlets  clustering  ; 
And  Time,  who  gathers  in  the  flying  years. 

He  gave  me  all — but  where  is  all  he  gave  ? 
He  took  my  love  and  left  me  barren  tears  ; 

Weary  and  lone  I  follow  to  the  grave. 
There  Death  will  end  this  vision  halfdivine, 

Wan  Death,  who  waits  in  shadow  evermore. 
And  silent,  ere  he  gave  the  sudden  sign  ; 

Oh,  gently  lead  me  through  thy  narrow  door, 
Thou  gentle  Death,  thou  trustiest  friend  of  mine. 

Ah  me,  for  Love  will  Death  my  love  restore  ?  " 

— Frederick  Locker. 

For  any  further  discussion  of  this  pregnant  subject, 
reference  must  be  made  to  Leigh  Hunt's  volumes,  to 
Mr.  Tomlinson's  book,  to  the  two  collections  of  Mr. 
Waddington,  and  to  the  full  "  Treasury  of  English 
Sonnets,"  by  Mr.  David  M.  Main. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OF  THE  RONDEAU  AND  THE  BALLADE. 

TT  is  curious  to  note  that  the  only  fixed  and  rigid 
-*■  form  of  verse  which  we  EngHsh-speaking  peoples 
have  until  lately  been  willing  to  adopt  is  the  sonnet. 
It  is  almost  equally  curious  to  note  that  the  first  im- 
petus toward  the  introduction  of  new  forms  came  to  us 
from  France,  a  country  where,  until  within  the  last 
half-century,  verse  has  been  as  prim  and  precise,  as 
empty  and  as  soulless,  as  metrical  prose  by  any  possi- 
bility may  be.  But,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  ro- 
mantic revival  which  marked  the  dying  days  and  final 
downfall  of  the  elder  branch  of  the  house  of  Bourbon, 
and  especially  under  the  influence  of  the  extraordinary 
vigor  and  vitality  of  Victor  Hugo's  earlier  verse  and 
prose,  the  fresh  young  blood  of  France  began  to  course 
through  more  poetic  channels,  inventing  new  forms  to 
vent  its  new-found  feeling,  and  filling  old  forms  again 
with  the  current  of  new  life.  The  young  poets  went 
back  to  the  verses  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres, 
and  to  the  metrical  forms  of  the  fourteenth  century ; 
they  went,  indeed,  wherever  they  hoped  to  find  a  fonn 
or  a  suggestion  of  style  suitable  and  worthy  of  mod- 


92 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


em  reproduction  and  resuscitation ;  the  stranger,  the 
more  exotic,  the  better.  The  ballade  and  the  ron- 
deau were  brought  again  into  favor.  The  English 
ballad,  with  its  wealth  of  suggestiveness  and  lyric  pos- 
sibility, was  fit,  indeed,  to  the  minds  of  young  writers 
fresh  from  the  first  reading  of  "  Notre-Dame  de  Paris." 
Hugo  called  one  collection  of  his  poems  "  Odes  et  Bal- 
lades "  —  though,  as  a  critic  objected,  it  contained 
neither  odes  nor  ballades — for  the  French  ballade  is 
radically  different  from  the  English  ballad  ;  and  it  was 
the  English  lyric  which  Hugo  had  in  mind,  not  the 
French  form  of  verse.  In  spite  of  the  tendency  toward 
the  Gothic,  none  of  the  involved  meters  of  the  German 
Minnesingers  were,  as  far  as  we  find  on  record,  at  any 
time  imitated.  But  English  legends  and  lyrics,  and 
fashions  of  all  kinds,  found  frequent  copyists,  even  to 
the  verge  of  affectation — M.  Auguste  Maquet,  the  col- 
laborator of  Dumas,  called  himself  for  a  while  Augus- 
tus MacKeat,  and  Th^ophile  Dondee  became  for  a 
season  Philoth^e  O'Neddy  !  These  eccentricities  slow- 
ly , passed  away,  and  the  good  they  had  clouded  re- 
mained. French  poetry  to-day  is  more  like  poetry  and 
less  like  Pope  than  it  has  been  for  several  centuries. 
Hugo's  example  has  been  followed — nay,  even  im- 
proved, for  "  the  master,"  as  his  followers  affectionate- 
ly call  him,  is,  like  other  great  geniuses,  often  careless, 
and  the  art  of  Theophile  Gautier,  and  of  Baudelaire, 
and  of  M.  Theodore  de  Banville,  is  above  all  things  fin- 
ished and  polished  and  perfect. 

And  to-day  the  inspiration  which  the  French  poets 
caught  from  their  study  of  the  early  forms  of  French 


OF   THE   RONDEA  U  AND  BALLADE. 


93 


verse  is  beginning  to  be  transmitted  across  the  Channel 
to  England,  and  we  now  and  then  see  an  English  ron- 
deau or  villandle ;  and  the  sight  is  ever  welcome,  for 
nothing  makes  surer  the  poet's  hold  on  the  mechanism 
of  his  art  than  the  practice  of  new  meters  and  the 
study  of  foreign  forms.  The  impulse  in  favor  of  the 
rondeau  and  the  ballade,  and  their  less  important  rela- 
tives, the  rofidel  and  villanelle,  given  in  France  by  M. 
Theodore  de  Banville,  was  in  England  due  to  Mr. 
Austin  Dobson,  who  united  to  a  precision  and  polish 
and  point,  as  fine  as  M.  de  Banville's,  a  poetic  faculty 
far  superior.  Although  a  scant  attempt  had  been  made 
now  and  again  to  write  a  trinlet  in  English,  it  was  not 
until  Mr.  Dobson  took  up  these  French  forms  serious- 
ly, and  studied  them  and  adapted  them  to  the  genius 
of  our  language  and  of  our  versification,  that  they  made 
any  impression  on  the  public  mind.  Indeed,  it  was  not 
until  the  publication,  in  the  "  Cornhill  Magazine "  of 
July,  1877,  of  Mr.  E.  W.  Gosse's  "  Plea  for  Certain 
Exotic  Forms  of  Verse,"  and  until  the  appearance  of 
Mr.  Dobson's  "  Proverbs  in  Porcelain,"  a  little  later, 
that  even  professed  students  of  poetry  began  to  under- 
stand what  a  ballade  was,  and  that  it  might  be  pre- 
cisely the  instrument  for  the  expression  of  certain 
moods  of  a  poet.  After  Mr.  Dobson  had  written  his 
first  ballade,  Mr.  Swinburne  wrote  one,  followed  soon 
by  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  Mr.  E,  W.  Gosse.  and  Mr.  W. 
E.  Henley,  in  England,  and  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Bunner  and 
others  in  America. 

In  the  course  of  the  past  four  years  a  many  rondeaux 
and  ballades  have  got  themselves  written,  and  the  French 


94 


THE   RHYMESTER. 


forms  are  now  fairly  familiar  to  the  public  which  cares 
for  poetry.  In  fact,  the  stage  of  experiment  has  passed  ; 
it  has  been  shown  that  these  forms  can  be  used  in  Eng- 
lish ;  and  the  sole  question  now  is  whether  they  have 
shown  themselves  worth  using.  I  think  it  can  be  as- 
serted fairly  that  at  least  two  of  them  have  proved  their 
case,  and  are  entitled  to  a  favorable  verdict.  These  are 
the  rondeau  and  the  ballade,  which  bid  fair  to  take  their 
place  in  our  poetic  armory  side  by  side  with  the  sonnet. 
Of  course,  it  would  be  absurd  to  assert  that  there  is 
yet  a  rondeau  or  a  ballade  equal  to  the  best  English  son- 
net— whatever  that  may  be.  It  is,  perhaps,  even  claim- 
ing too  much  to  say  that  either  form,  as  a  form,  is  equal 
to  the  sonnet.  But  the  sonnet  has  been  acclimated  in 
our  language  for  three  hundred  years.  As  Mr.  Austin 
Dobson  has  admirably  put  it,  in  the  apt  and  alluring 
"  Note  on  some  Foreign  Forms  of  Verse  "  which  he 
contributed  to  Mr.  W.  Davenport  Adams's  "  Latter-day 
Lyrics"  (London,  1878),  there  were  doubtless  contem- 
porary critics  who,  when  the  English  sonnet  was  in 
leading-strings,  "  regarded  it  as  a  merely  new-fangled 
Italian  conceit,  suitable  enough  for  the  fantastic  gal- 
lantries of  Provengal  courts  of  love,  but  affording  little 
or  no  room  for  earnest  or  serious  effort.  They  could 
not  see  'Avenge,  O  Lord,  thy  slaughter 'd  saints!'  in 
the  primitive  essays  of  Surrey  and  Wyatt."  Mr.  Dob- 
son  went  on  to  concede  that  "  the  majority  of  the 
forms  now  in  question  are  not  at  present  suited  for,  nor 
are  they  intended  to  rival  the  more  approved  national 
rhythms  in,  the  treatment  of  grave  and  elevated  themes. 
What  is  modestly  advanced  for  some  of  them  (by  the 


OF   THE  RONDEAU  AND  BALLADE.     95 

present  writer  at  least)  is  that  they  may  add  a  new 
charm  of  buoyancy — a  lyric  freshness — to  amatory  and 
familiar  verse,  already  too  much  condemned  to  faded 
measures  and  outworn  cadences."  A  little  further  on, 
Mr.  Dobson  has  a  remark  which  more  than  justifies 
the  space  given  to  these  forms  in  this  new  edition  of  a 
technical  manual :  "  They  have  also  a  humbler  and 
obscurer  use.  If,  to  quote  the  once-hackneyed  but 
now  too-much-forgotten  maxim  of  Pope — 

"  '  Those  move  easiest  that  have  learned  to  dance,' 

what  better  discipline,  among  others,  could  possibly  be 
devised  for  '  those  about  to  versify '  than  a  course  of 
rondeaux,  triolets,  and  ballades." 

Oddly  enough,  the  two  forms  which  seem  most 
useful,  and  most  likely  to  remain  in  use  in  our  lan- 
guage— the  rondeau  and  the  ballade — were  both  at- 
tempted in  England  as  early  as  was  the  sonnet.  At 
the  coronation  of  King  Henry  IV,  John  Gower,  the 
author  of  the  "  Confessio  Amantis,"  presented  his  Ma- 
jesty with  a  collection  of  fifty  ballades  in  the  Provengal 
manner  "  to  entertain  the  court."  Unfortunately,  these 
were  in  French,  else  might  we  trace  an  older  pedigree 
for  the  English  ballade  than  for  the  English  sonnet. 
Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  introduced  the  true  sonnet  into 
England,  and  he  also  wrote  rondeaux  in  English ; 
whether  he  was  the  first  to  do  so  or  not,  we  can  not 
tell  at  this  late  day'.  In  the  next  century,  Charles  Cot- 
ton, friend  of  that  compleat  angler  Isaak  Walton,  wrote 
an  ungallant  rondeau,  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Guest's  "  His- 
tory of  English  Rhythms."     In  the  last  century  there 


g6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

are  a  few  squibs  in  rondeau  form  in  the  "  RoUiad." 
Then  came  Mr.  Austin  Dobson. 

The  word  rondeau  has  been  applied  inaccurately  in 
English  to  any  poem  in  which  the  first  words  of  the 
stanza  were  repeated  at  the  end.  The  one  specimen 
of  this  sort,  which  all  may  remember,  is  Leigh  Hunt's 
brief  and  beautiful — 

"  Jenny  kissed  me  when  we  met, 

Jumping  from  the  chair  she  sat  in  ; 
Time,  you  thief,  who  love  to  get 

Sweets  upon  your  list,  put  that  in — 
Say  I'm  weary,  say  I'm  sad. 

Say  that  health  and  wealth  have  missed  me, 
Say  I'm  growing  old  ;  hut  add — 
Jenny  kissed  me  !  " 

How  far  this  is  from  the  real  form  of  the  rondeau 
can  readily  be  seen  by  comparing  it  with  this  tran- 
scription by  Mr.  Dobson  of  a  French  rondeau  of  Voi- 
ture's : 

"  '  YOU    BID    ME   TRY.' 

"  You  bid  me  try,  blue  eyes,  to  write 
A  rondeau.     What  ! — forthwith  ? — to-night  ? 
Reflect.     Some  skill  I  have,  'tis  true  ; 
But  thirteen  lines — and  rhymed  on  two — 
'  Refrain,'  as  well.     Ah,  hapless  plight ! 

"  Still,  there  are  five  lines — ranged  aright. 
These  Gallic  bonds,  I  feared,  would  fright 
My  easy  Muse.     They  did  till  you — 
You  bid  me  try  ! 


OF    THE  RONDEAU  AND  BALLADE.     97 

"  This  makes  them  nine.     The  port's  in  sight ; 
'Tis  all  because  your  eyes  are  bright ! 
Now,  just  a  pair  to  end  with  '  00  ' — 
When  maids  command,  what  can't  we  do  ? 
Behold  !  the  rondeau — tasteful,  light — 
You  bid  me  try  !  " 

Here  the  poet  describes  and  exemplifies  at  once. 
From  this  it  is  seen  that  the  rondeau  has  thirteen  lines 
with  but  two  rhymes,  eight  of  one  and  five  of  the 
other,  in  a  rigidly  prescribed  order,  and  that  the  first 
four  syllables  are  repeated  as  an  unrhymed  refrain  after 
the  eighth  line  and  again  at  the  end.  Here  is  another 
example  : 

"  SLEEP. 

"  O  happy  Sleep  !  that  bear'st  upon  thy  breast 
The  blood-red  poppy  of  enchanting  rest. 

Draw  near  me  through  the  stillness  of  this  place 
And  let  thy  low  breath  move  across  my  face. 
As  faint  winds  move  above  a  poplar's  crest. 

"  The  broad  seas  darken  slowly  in  the  west ; 
The  wheeling  sea-birds  call  from  nest  to  nest  ; 
Draw  near  and  touch  me,  leaning  out  of  space, 
O  happy  Sleep  ! 

"  There  is  no  sorrow  hidden  or  confess'd. 
There  is  no  passion  uttered  or  suppress'd, 
Thou  canst  not  for  a  little  while  efface  ; 
Enfold  me  in  thy  mystical  embrace, 
Thou  sovereign  gift  of  God  most  sweet,  most  blest, 
O  happy  Sleep  !  " 

— Ada  Louise  Martin. 


98  THE  RHYMESTER. 

From  these  two  examples  the  structure  of  the  ron- 
deau is  made  plain,  and  its  difficulty  also,  which  chiefly 
lies  in  the  handling  of  the  refrain.  To  learn  the  inner 
secret  of  the  rondeau,  said  the  writer  of  an  anonymous 
article  whose  author  we  can  not  but  suspect,  "  to  give 
the  refrain  a  new  savor  and  fragrance  at  each  repeti- 
tion by  some  covert  art  of  setting,  and  to  make  it  seem 
the  mere  bubbling  over,  as  it  were,  of  the  eighth  and 
thirteenth  lines — these  are  things  which  only  the  mas- 
ters of  the  lyre  can  attain  to."  To  give  absolute  vari- 
ety to  the  refrain,  a  complete  change  of  meaning  at 
each  recurrence  is  enjoined,  and  the  liberty  of  some- 
thing very  like  punning  is  allowed. 

There  is  another  and  slightly  different  form  of  the 
rondeau,  altogether  less  apt  either  for  deep  meaning  or 
sportive  jest ;  notwithstanding  which  it  has  been  used 
by  Villon  and  by  Alfred  de  Musset.  Here  is  an  Eng- 
lish example : 

"  VIOLET. 

"  Violet  delicate,  sweet, 

Down  in  the  deep  of  the  wood, 
Hid  in  thy  still  retreat, 
Far  from  the  sound  of  the  street, 
Man  and  his  merciless  mood  : — 

"  Safe  from  the  storm  and  the  heat. 
Breathing  of  beauty  and  good 
Fragrantly,  under  thy  hood, 
Violet. 

"  Beautiful  maid  discreet, 

Where  is  the  mate  that  is  meet, 


OF   THE  RONDEAU  AND  BALLADE.     99 

Meet  for  thee — strive  as  he  could — 
Yet  will  I  kneel  at  thy  feet, 
Fearing  another  one  should, 
Violet  !  " 

—  W.  Cosmo  Monkhouse. 

Plainly  the  rondeau  lends  itself  readily  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  English  language,  yet  it  yields  in  power  and 
variety  to  the  ballade,  which  is  also  based  on  the  triple 
use  of  a  refrain.  Perhaps  example  should  always  pre- 
cede exposition.  Villon,  that  "  voice  out  of  the  slums 
of  Paris,"  wrote  a  rondeau  now  and  then,  but  his  great 
love  was  the  ballade  ;  and  in  his  hands  it  is  a  wonderful 
instrument.  No  English  version  can  do  justice  to  his 
verse,  but  it  is  well  to  begin  by  quoting  a  ballade  of  his  : 

"  BALLADE   OF   THINGS    KNOWN    AND    UNKNOWN. 
"  Flies  in  the  milk  I  know  full  well: 

I  know  men  by  the  clothes  they  wear  : 
I  know  the  walnut  by  the  shell : 
I  know  the  foul  sky  from  the  fair : 
I  know  the  pear-tree  by  the  pear : 
When  things  go  well,  to  me  is  shown  : 
I  know  who  work  and  who  forbear : 
I  know  all  save  myself  alone. 

"  I  know  the  pourpoint  by  the  fell : 
And  by  his  gown  I  know  the  fr^rc  : 
Master  from  varlet  can  I  tell  : 

And  nuns  that  cover  up  their  hair : 
I  know  a  swindler  by  his  air, 
And  fools  that  fat  on  cates  have  grown  : 

Wines  by  the  cask  I  can  compare  : 
I  know  all  save  myself  alone. 
7 


lOO  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  I  know  how  horse  from  mule  to  tell  : 

I  know  the  load  each  one  can  bear  : 
I  know  both  Beatrice  and  Bell : 

I  know  the  hazards,  odd  and  pair  : 

I  know  of  visions  in  the  air : 
I  know  the  power  of  Peter's  throne 

And  how  misled  Bohemians  were  : 
I  know  all  save  myself  alone. 

"  ENVOY. 

"  Prince,  I  know  all  things :  fat  and  spare, 
Ruddy  and  pale,  to  me  are  known  ; 
And  Death  that  endeth  all  our  care  : 
I  know  all  save  myself  alone. 

— John  Payne,  from  Francois  Villon. 

From  this  we  see  that  the  ballade  consists  of  three 
stanzas  and  a  half-stanza,  called  an  envoy,  and  gener- 
ally addressed  directly  to  some  prince  or  power ;  that 
the  rhymes  and  arrangement  of  the  first  stanza  are  re- 
peated in  the  others ;  and  that  the  refrain  concludes  all 
three  stanzas  and  the  envoy.  Eight-line  stanzas  with 
only  three  rhymes,  as  above,  are  the  most  often  seen  ; 
but  ten-line  stanzas  using  four  rhymes  are  also  per- 
missible— as  may  be  seen  below  : 

"  BALLADE   OF  THE   MIDNIGHT   FOREST. 

"  Still  sing  the  mocking  fairies  as  of  old, 

Beneath  the  shade  of  thorn  and  holly-tree  ; 
The  west  wind  breathes  upon  them,  pure  and  cold, 
And  wolves  still  dread  Diana  roaming  free 
In  secret  woodland  with  her  company. 
'Tis  thought  the  peasant's  hovels  know  her  rite 


OF   THE  RONDEAU  AND  BALLADE,     loi 

When  now  the  wolds  are  bathed  in  silver  light, 
And  first  the  moonrise  breaks  the  dusky  gray, 

Then  down  the  dells  with  blown  soft  hair  and  bright, 
And  through  the  dim  wood  Dian  threads  her  way. 

"  With  water-weeds  twined  in  their  locks  of  gold 
The  strange  cold  forest-fairies  dance  in  glee, 

Sylphs  over-timorous  and  over-bold 

Haunt  the  dark  hollows  where  the  dwarf  may  be, 
The  wild  red  dwarf,  the  nixies'  enemy  ; 
Then  'mid  their  mirth  and  laughter,  and  affright. 
The  sudden  Goddess  enters,  tall  and  white. 

With  one  long  sigh  for  summers  passed  away  ; 
The  swift  feet  tear  the  ivy  nets  outright 

And  through  the  dim  wood  Dian  threads  her  way. 

"  She  gleans  her  silvan  trophies  ;  down  the  wold 
She  hears  the  sobbing  of  the  stags  that  flee 

Mixed  with  the  music  of  the  hunting  roll'd. 
But  her  delight  is  all  in  archery. 
And  naught  of  ruth  and  pity  wotteth  she. 
More  than  her  hounds  that  follow  on  the  flight : 
The  goddess  draws  a  golden  bow  of  night 

And  thick  she  rains  the  gentle  shafts  that  slay. 
She  tosses  loose  her  locks  upon  the  night. 

And  through  the  dim  wood  Dian  threads  her  way. 

"  ENVOY. 
■'  Prince,  let  us  leave  the  din,  the  dust,  the  spite, 

The  gloom  and  glare  of  towns,  the  plague,  the  blight ; 

Amid  the  forest  leaves  and  fountain  spray 
There  is  the  mystic  house  of  our  delight. 

And  through  the  dim  wood  Dian  threads  her  way." 
— Andrew  Lang,  after  Theodore  de  Banville. 


102  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Two  other  varieties  are  known.  One  is  the  double 
ballade,  which  is  simply  a  ballade  with  six  stanzas  (all 
repeating  the  rhymes  and  arrangement  of  the  first  of 
either  eight  lines  or  ten),  and  with  or  without  an  envoy, 
as  the  poet  pleases.  And  the  other  is  the  ballade 
with  a  double  refrain,  in  which  the  fourth  line  of  the 
first  stanza  (always  of  eight  lines)  is  repeated  in  the 
other  stanzas,  while  the  envoy  consists  of  two  couplets 
in  which  both  refrains  occur  in  order.  The  typical 
French  example  of  the  ballade  with  two  refrains  is 
the  "  Frere  Lubin "  of  Clement  Marot,  which  has 
been  translated  by  both  Longfellow  and  Bryant,  nei- 
ther of  whom  has  presented  the  ballade  form.  Here 
is  the  best  attempt  at  the  ballade  with  two  refrains, 
and  one  of  the  most  bhthesome  and  debonair  poems 
of  its  author : 

"THE   BALLADE  OF   PROSE   AND   RHYME. 
"  When  the  ways  are  heavy  with  mire  and  rut, 
In  November  fogs,  in  December  snows, 
When  the  north  wind  howls,  and  the  doors  are  shut — 
There  is  place  and  enough  for  the  pains  of  prose  ; 
But  whenever  a  scent  from  the  whitethorn  blows, 
And  the  jasmine-stars  to  the  lattice  climb. 

And  a  Rosalind-face  to  the  casement  shows — 
Then  hey  ! — for  the  ripple  of  laughing  rhyme  ! 

' '  When  the  brain  gets  as  dry  as  an  empty  nut, 
When  the  reason  stands  on  its  squarest  toes. 

When  the  mind  (like  a  beard)  has  a  '  formal  cut  ' — 
There  is  place  and  enough  for  the  pains  of  prose  ; 
But  whenever  the  May-blood  stirs  and  glows. 

And  the  young  year  draws  to  the  '  golden  prime,* 


OF  THE  RONDEAU  AND  BALLADE.     103 

And  Sir  Romeo  sticks  in  his  ear  a  rose — 
Then  hey  ! — for  the  ripple  of  laughing  rhyme  ! 

"  In  a  theme  where  the  thoughts  have  a  pendant  strut, 

In  a  changing  quarrel  of  '  Ayes '  and  '  Noes,' 
In  a  starched  procession  of  'If  and  '  But ' — 

There  is  place  and  enough  for  the  pains  of  prose  ; 

But  whenever  a  soft  glance  softer  grows, 
And  the  light  hours  dance  to  the  trysting-time, 

And  the  secret  is  told  '  that  no  one  knows  ' — 
Then  hey  ! — for  the  ripple  of  laughing  rhyme  ! 

"  ENVOY. 

"  In  the  work-a-day  world — for  its  needs  and  woes. 
There  is  place  and  enough  for  the  pains  of  prose  ; 
But  whenever  the  May  bells  clash  and  chime, 
Then  hey  ! — for  the  ripple  of  laughing  rhyme  !  " 

— Austin  Dobson. 

The  great  secret  of  the  ballade  is  the  apt  choice 
and  adroit  use  of  the  refrain.  First  catch  your  refrain. 
Then  tame  it  to  do  your  bidding,  until  (as  the  anony- 
mous writer  already  quoted  says  neatly)  "  it  recur  with- 
out the  tedium  of  importunity  and  return  with  the 
certainty  of  welcome."  The  ballade  with  a  double 
refrain  is  doubly  difficult,  for  it  demands  two  good 
refrains  contrasting  sharply,  and  setting  each  other  off 
to  advantage.  M.  de  Banville  warns  the  ballade-maker 
against  making  his  stanzas  four  lines  at  a  time,  for  the 
two  halves  will  never  join  imperceptibly  ;  they  will 
always  be  broken-backed.  Each  stanza  should  be 
homogeneous,  cast  in  one  jet,  welded  at  a  white  heat. 
The  thought  of  the  ballade,  the  central  and  primary 


104 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


idea,  should  be  brought  out  in  each  stanza  and  em- 
phasized in  the  refrain ;  and  then  packed  compactly 
into  the  final  epigram  of  the  envoy ;  finally,  by  the  fourth 
repetition  of  the  refrain,  driven  home  to  the  head. 

All  of  Mr.  Dobson's  ballades  will  repay  study  with 
delight ;  the  most  of  them  may  be  found  in  the  Ameri- 
can edition  of  his  collected  poems  called  "  Vignettes 
in  Rhyme"  (New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1880). 
In  Mr.  Andrew  Lang's  dainty  and  delightful  little 
volume  of  "  XXXH  Ballades  in  Blue  China"  (Lon- 
don: Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co.,  1881),  are  to  be 
found  ballades  of  great  variety  and  dexterity. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

OF  OTHER   FIXED    FORMS   OF   VERSE. 

BEFORE  taking  up  the  other  fixed  forms  of  verse, 
it  may  be  well  to  digress  for  a  moment  to  con- 
sider the  use  of  the  refrain,  upon  the  regular  recurrence 
of  which  the  ballade  and  the  rondeau  and  most  of  the 
other  forms  are  based.  No  artistic  effect  of  verse,  as 
Poe  says,  has  been  so  universally  employed.  It  is  to 
be  seen  in  the  meaningless  choruses  of  college  and 
convivial  songs,  in  the  recurrent  catch-lines  of  the  old 
English  and  Scotch  ballads,  and  in  the  quaint  repeti- 
tions of  their  modern  imitations,  like  the  "  Sister  Helen  " 
of  Mr.  Rossetti,  and  the  other  mediaevalisms  which 
Mr.  C.  S.  Calverley  has  comically  parodied  : 

"  The  farmer's  daughter  hath  soft  brown  hair 
{Btiitcr  and  eggs  and  a  pound  of  cheese) ; 
And  I  met  with  a  ballad  I  can't  say  where, 
Which  wholly  consisted  of  lines  like  these." 

In  these  instances  the  refrain  existed  with  but  slight 
usefulness.  As  Poe  says,  it  is  in  a  primitive  condition  ; 
"  as  commonly  used,  the  refrain,  or  burden,  ...  de- 
pends for  its  impression  upon  the  force  of  monotone — 
both  in  sound  and  thought.     The  pleasure  is  deduced 


lo6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

solely  from  the  sense  of  identity — of  repetition.  I  re- 
solved to  diversify,  and  so  heighten,  the  effect,  by  ad- 
hering, in  general,  to  the  monotone  of  sound,  while  I 
continually  varied  that  of  thought ;  that  is  to  say,  I 
determined  to  produce  continuously  novel  effects,  by 
the  variation  of  the  application  of  the  refrain  —  the 
refrain  itself  remaining,  for  the  most  part,  unvaried." 
Poe's  success  in  the  execution  of  this  device,  which  is 
not  as  novel  as  he  declares,  can  be  seen  in  "  The  Ra- 
ven "  and  also  in  "  The  Bells."  The  same  effect  is  pro- 
duced in  satiric  verse  in  the  "  Biglow  Papers,"  where 

"  John  P 
Robinson,  he 
Says  he  wont  vote  for  Governor  B," 

and  in  the  virile  and  noble  stanzas,  in  which  Mr.  Sted- 
man  tells  us  that 

"  John  Brown, 
Ossawotomie  Brown, 
Saw  his  sons  fall  dead  beside  him,  and  between  them  laid 
him  down." 

In  both  of  these,  as  in  Poe's  "Raven,"  the  refrain 
recurs  at  regular  intervals,  and  almost  unvaried  in  form, 
but  with  great  variety  in  the  application.  And  this  is 
the  principle  of  the  ballade  and  the  rondeau  and  the 
ro7idel  and  their  fellows.  The  words  of  the  refrain 
are  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  which  alter 
not,  but  the  meaning  of  these  words  admits  of  as 
much  variety  as  the  poet  can  impart. 

Closely  allied  to  the  rondeau  are  the  triolet  and  the 
rondel.    Here  is  a  triolet : 


OF  OTHER  FIXED   FORMS   OF   VERSE. 


107 


"A  PITCHER  OF   MIGNONETTE. 
"  A  pitcher  of  mignonette, 

In  a  tenement's  highest  casement : 
Queer  sort  of  a  flower-pot — yet 
That  pitcher  of  mignonette 
Is  a  garden  in  heaven  set, 

To  the  little  sick  child  in  the  basement — 
The  pitcher  of  mignonette. 

In  the  tenement's  highest  casement. 

— H.  C.  Bunner. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  triolet  is  a  single  stanza  of 
two  rhymes  and  eight  lines,  of  which  the  first  is  re- 
peated as  the  fourth,  and  the  first  and  second  as  the 
seventh  and  eighth.  "  The  triolet  is,  perhaps,  best 
adapted  for  epigram,"  says  a  writer  from  whom  I  have 
already  quoted  ;  "  the  weight  of  its  raison  d  'efre  rests 
on  the  fifth  and  sixth  lines,  while  the  perfection  of  its 
execution  lies  in  the  skill  with  which  the  third  line  is 
connected  with  the  fourth,  and  the  final  couplet  with 
the  one  preceding  it." 

The  rondel,  of  which  the  earliest  English  examples 
were  perhaps  written  by  Charles  of  Orleans  during  his 
residence  in  England,  is  also  closely  akin  to  the  rondeau. 
It  is  a  poem  of  two  rhymes  and  fourteen  lines,  with  a 
repetition  of  the  first  and  second  lines  as  the  seventh 
and  eighth,  and  again  as  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth. 

"READY   FOR  THE  RIDE. 
"  Through  the  fresh  fairness  of  the  Spring  to  ride, 
As  in  the  old  days  when  he  rode  with  her, 
With  joy  of  Love  that  had  fond  Hope  to  bride, 
One  year  ago  had  made  her  pulses  stir. 


lo8  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Now  shall  no  wish  with  any  day  recur 

(For  Love  and  Death  part  year  and  year  full  wide), 
Through  the  fresh  fairness  of  the  Spring  to  ride, 
As  in  the  old  days  when  he  rode  with  her. 

"  No  ghost  there  lingers  of  the  smile  that  died 
On  the  sweet  pale  lip  where  his  kisses  were — 
.  .  .  Yet  still  she  turns  her  delicate  head  aside, 

If  she  may  hear  him  come,  with  jingling  spur — 
Through  the  fresh  fairness  of  the  Spring  to  ride. 
As  in  the  old  days  when  he  rode  with  her." 

— H.  C.  Bunner. 

It  is,  however,  allowable  at  times  to  omit  the  four- 
teenth line  and  to  end  with  the  repetition  of  the  first  line 
as  the  thirteenth,  thus  : 

"THE  WANDERER. 

"  Love  comes  back  to  his  vacant  dwelling — 
The  old,  old  Love  that  we  knew  of  yore  ! 
We  see  him  stand  by  the  open  door. 
With  his  great  eyes  sad,  and  his  bosom  swelling. 

"  He  makes  as  though  in  our  arms  repelling 
He  fain  would  lie,  as  he  lay  before  ; 
Love  comes  back  to  his  vacant  dwelling — 
The  old,  old  Love  which  we  knew  of  yore  ! 

"  Ah,  who  shall  help  us  from  over-spelling 
That  sweet  forgotten,  forbidden  Lore ! 
E'en  as  we  doubt,  in  our  heart  once  more. 
With  a  rush  of  tears  to  our  eyelids  welling. 
Love  comes  back  to  his  vacant  dwelling  !  " 

— Austin  Dobson. 


OF  OTHER  FIXED   FORMS  OF    VERSE.   109 

Just  as  the  rondel  and  the  triolet  seem  variations  of 
the  rondeau,  so  is  the  chant-royal  a  development  of 
the  ballade  :  it  is  to  be  defined  roughly  as  a  ballade  of 
five  stanzas  of  eleven  lines,  with  an  envoy  of  five  lines. 
It  is  said  that,  according  to  the  strict  rule  of  the  older 
French  writers,  the  chant-royal  should  be  an  allegory, 
the  solution  of  which  is  contained  in  the  envoy.  There 
are  but  few  English  chattts-royals,  for  the  making  of 
them  is  a  hard  and  thankless  task.  Mr.  Gosse  has 
written  a  splendidly  sustained  chant-royal  to  the 
"  Praise  of  Dionysus,"  and  Mr.  Dobson  another  sug- 
gested by  the  "  Death  of  Death."  In  America,  so  far 
as  I  know,  but  one  has  been  written  ;  and  it  is  this  one 
which  I  quote,  for  it  shows  how  readily  even  the  most 
difficult  form  lends  itself  to  satire  and  humor  : 

"  BEHOLD    THE   DEEDS  ! 
[Being  the  Plaint  of  Adolphe  Culpepper  Ferguson,  Salesman  of 
Fancy  Notions,  held  in  durance  of  his  Landlady  for  a  failure  to  connect 
on  Saturday  night.] 

I. 

"  I  would  that  all  men  my  hard  case  might  know  ; 
How  grievously  I  suffer  for  no  sin  : 
I,  Adolphe  Culpepper  Ferguson,  for  lo  ! 
I  of  my  landlady  am  locked  in. 
For  being  short  on  this  sad  Saturday, 
Nor  having  shekels  of  silver  wherewith  to  pay  : 
She  has  turned  and  is  departed  with  my  key  ; 
Wherefore,  not  even  as  other  boarders  free, 

I  sing  (as  prisoners  to  their  dungeon-stones 
When  for  ten  days  they  expiate  a  spree) : 

Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 


no  THE  RHYMESTER. 

II. 
"  One  night  and  one  day  have  I  wept  my  woe  ; 
Nor  wot  I,  when  the  morrow  doth  begin, 
If  I  shall  have  to  write  to  Briggs  &  Co., 
To  pray  them  to  advance  the  requisite  tin 
For  ransom  of  their  salesman,  that  he  may 
Go  forth  as  other  boarders  go  alway — 

As  those  I  hear  now  flocking  from  their  tea, 
Led  by  the  daughter  of  my  landlady 

Piano-ward.     This  day,  for  all  my  moans, 
Dry  bread  and  water  have  been  served  me. 

Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 

III. 
"  Miss  Amabel  Jones  is  musical,  and  so 

The  heart  of  the  young  he-board^r  doth  win, 
Playing  '  The  Maiden's  Prayer,'  adagio — 

That  fetcheth  him,  as  fetcheth  the  banco  skin 
The  innocent  rustic.     For  my  part,  I  pray : 
That  Badarjewska  maid  may  wait  for  aye 
Ere  sits  she  with  a  lover,  as  did  we 
Once  sit  together,  Amabel !     Can  it  be 

That  all  that  arduous  wooing  not  atones 
For  Saturday  shortness  of  trade  dollars  three  ? 
Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 

IV. 

"  Yea  !  she  forgets  the  arm  was  wont  to  go 

Around  her  waist.     She  wears  a  buckle,  whose  pin 
Galleth  the  crook  of  the  young  man's  elbow. 
/  forget  not,  for  I  that  youth  have  been. 
Smith  was  aforetime  the  Lothario  gay. 
Yet  once,  I  mind  me.  Smith  was  forced  to  stay 
Close  in  his  room.     Not  calm,  as  I,  was  he ; 


OF  OTHER   FIXED  FORMS  OF    VERSE,   m 

But  his  noise  brought  no  pleasaunce,  verily. 

Small  ease  he  gat  of  playing  on  the  bones 
Or  hammering  on  his  stove-pipe,  that  I  see. 

Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 

V. 
"  Thou,  for  whose  fear  the  figurative  crow 
I  eat,  accursed  be  thou  and  all  thy  kin  ! 
Thee  will  I  show  up — yea,  up  will  I  show 

Thy  too  thick  buckwheats,  and  thy  tea  too  thin. 
Ay  !  here  I  dare  thee,  ready  for  the  fray : 
Thou  dost  7iot '  keep  a  first-class  house,'  I  say  ! 
It  does  not  with  the  advertisements  agree. 
Thou  lodgest  a  Briton  with  a  puggaree. 

And  thou  hast  harbored  Jacobses  and  Cohns, 
Also  a  Mulligan.     Thus  denounce  I  thee  ! 

Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 

"  ENVOY. 

"  Boarders  !  the  worst  I  have  not  told  to  ye  : 
She  hath  stolen  my  trowsers,  that  I  may  not  flee 

Privily  by  the  window.     Hence  these  groans. 
There  is  no  fleeing  in  a  rode  de  nuit.      * 

Behold  the  deeds  that  are  done  of  Mrs.  Jones  ! 

— //.  C.  Bunner. 

The  villafielle,  like  the  rondel,  rondeau,  and  triolet, 
has  but  two  rhymes ;  its  peculiarity  is  the  alternation 
of  two  refrains.  It  consists  of  five  triplets,  followed  by 
a  quatrain.  The  opening  line  is  repeated  as  the  third 
of  the  second  and  fourth  triplets,  and  as  the  final  line 
of  the  concluding  quatrain.  The  third  line  reappears 
at  the  end  of  the  third  and  fifth  triplets,  and  as  the 
next  to  last  of  the  poem.     The  first  and  third  lines  of 


112  THE  RHYMESTER. 

each  triplet  all  rhyme  together ;  and  the  second  lines 
rhyme  with  one  another.  The  following  graceful  ex- 
ample is  not  absolutely  exact  in  form,  as  the  poet  has 
willfully,  and  without  warrant,  varied  the  last  line, 
which  ought  to  be  absolutely  identical  with  the  third  : 

"  There  are  roses  white,  there  are  roses  red, 
Shyly  rosy,  tenderly  white  ; 
Which  shall  I  choose  to  wreathe  my  head  ? 

"  Which  shall  I  cull  from  the  garden-bed 
To  greet  my  love  on  this  verj-  night? 
There  are  roses  white,  there  are  roses  red. 

"  The  red  should  say  what  I  would  have  said  ; 
Ah  !  how  they  blush  in  the  evening  light  1 
Which  shall  I  choose  to  wreathe  my  head  ? 

"  The  white  are  pale  as  the  snow  new  spread, 
Pure  as  young  eyes  and  half  as  bright ; 
There  are  roses  white,  there  are  roses  red. 

"  Roses  white,  from  the  heaven  dew-fed, 
Roseared  for  a  passion's  plight, 
Which  shall  I  choose  to  wreathe  my  head? 

"  Summer  twilight  is  almost  fled. 

Say,  dear  love  !  have  I  chosen  right  ? 
There  are  roses  white,  there  are  roses  red. 
All  twined  together  to  wreathe  my  head." 

— L.  S.  Bevington,  Roses. 

It  was  supposed  at  one  time  that  the  villanelle. 
might  be  of  indefinite  length,  but  the  best  authorities 
now  agree  with  M.  Boulmier  that,  as  Passerat  devised 
the  form,  it  is  fitting  that  his  "  J'ai  perdu  ma  tourterelle  " 


OF  OTHER  FIXED  FORMS  OF    VERSE. 


113 


should  be  followed,  and  that  consists  of  five  triplets 
and  a  quatrain. 

Something  like  the  villanelle  in  its  repetition  of 
two  lines,  but  without  any  limitation  on  the  number  of 
the  stanzas,  is  the  pantoum.  Not  content  with  merely- 
French  forms  of  verse,  the  French  poets  have  even 
adopted  one  Malayan  form,  the  pantou7n,  first  brought 
to  their  attention  in  the  notes  to  Hugo's  "  Orientales," 
and  afterward  employed  to  advantage  by  Theophile 
Gautier  and  M.  Theodore  de  Banville.  It  is  not  at 
first  sight  encouraging ;  it  consists  of  a  series  of  four- 
line  stanzas,  the  second  and  fourth  lines  of  each  stanza 
reappearing  as  the  first  and  third  of  the  next  stanza, 
and  so  on  ad  mfinitum,  the  first  and  third  lines  of  the 
first  stanza  appearing  again  in  the  final  one.  Mr.  Dob- 
son's  pantoum  is  a  little  long,  so  only  beginning  and 
end  are  here  given  : 

"  IN   TOWN. 
" '  The  blue-fly  sung  in  the  pane.'' — Tennyson. 

"  June  in  the  zenith  is  torrid 

(There  is  that  woman  again  !) ; 
Here,  with  the  sun  on  one's  forehead, 
Thought  gets  dry  in  the  brain. 

"  There  is  that  woman  again  ; 

'  Strawberries  !  fourpence  a  pottle  ' ' 
Thought  gets  dry  in  the  brain  ; 
Ink  gets  dry  in  the  bottle. 

"  '  Strawberries  !  fourpence  a  pottle  ! ' 
Oh,  for  the  green  of  a  lane  ! 
Ink  gets  dry  in  the  bottle  ; 
'  Buzz '  goes  a  fly  in  the  pane  ! 


114  ^^^  RHYMESTER. 


"  Some  muslin-clad  Mabel  or  May 

To  dash  one  with  eau  de  Cologne  ; 
Bluebottle's  off  and  away, 
And  why  should  I  stay  here  alone  ? 

"  To  dash  one  with  eau  de  Cologne 
All  over  one's  talented  forehead  ! 
And  why  should  I  stay  here  alone  ? 
June  in  the  zenith  is  torrid  ! " 

There  are  very  few  pantottms  in  English,  and  not 
likely  to  be  many  more,  for  the  writing  of  them  is 
merely  a  freak  of  literary  ingenuity,  and  not  likely  to 
have  results  of  permanent  value.  There  is  an  Ameri- 
can pantotim,  "  En  Route,"  in  "  Scribner's  "  for  July, 
1878,  setting  forth  the  misery  of  railroad  travel  in  hot 
weather.  In  both  "  In  Town  "  and  "  En  Route  "  there 
is  an  attempt  to  make  the  constant  repetitions  not 
merely  tolerable,  but  subservient  to  the  general  effect 
of  monotonously  recurrent  sound — in  the  one  case,  the 
buzzing  of  the  fly,  and  in  the  other,  the  rattle  and  strain 
of  the  cars. 

The  sestina  is  even  more  complicated  and  difficult 
than  iht  pantoum  or  the  chant-royal.  It  was  invented 
by  Arnauld  Daniel,  a  Provengal  troubadour  of  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century ;  and  from  him  it  was  copied 
by  various  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  poets.  It 
consists  of  six  six-lined  stanzas,  each  of  which  ends  with 
the  same  six  words,  not  rhyming,  but  arranged  in  a 
prescribed  order,  and  it  concludes  with  an  envoy  of 
three  lines,  containing  all  six  of  the  final  words,  three 


OF  OTHER  FIXED  FORMS  OF    VERSE. 


115 


at  the  end  of  the  lines,  and  three  in  the  body  of  the 
lines.     I  know  only  one  English  example  of  this  form  : 

"  Fra  tutti  il  pri7no  A  rnaldo  Daniello 
.  Gran  maestro  d'amor?'' — Petrarch. 

"  In  fair  Provence,  the  land  of  lute  and  rose, 
Arnaut,  great  master  of  the  lore  of  love, 
First  wrought  sestines  to  win  his  lady's  heart, 
For  she  was  deaf  when  simpler  staves  he  sang, 
And  for  her  sake  he  broke  the  bonds  of  rhyme. 
And  in  this  subtler  measure  hid  his  woe. 

"  '  Harsh  be  my  lines,'  cried  Arnaut,  '  harsh  the  woe. 
My  lady,  that  enthorn'd  and  cruel  rose. 
Inflicts  on  him  that  made  her  live  in  rhyme  ! ' 
But  through  the  meter  spake  the  voice  of  Love, 
And  like  a  wild-wood  nightingale  he  sang 
Who  thought  in  crabbed  lays  to  ease  his  heart. 

"  It  is  not  told  if  her  untoward  heart 
Was  melted  by  the  poet's  lyric  woe. 
Or  if  in  vain  so  amorously  he  sang ; 
Perchance  through  cloud  of  dark  conceits  he  rose 
To  nobler  heights  of  philosophic  love, 
And  crowned  his  later  years  with  sterner  rhyme. 

"  This  thing  alone  we  know  :  the  triple  rhyme 
Of  him  who  bared  his  vast  and  passionate  heart 
To  all  the  crossing  flames  of  hate  and  love. 
Wears  in  the  midst  of  all  its  storm  of  woe — 
As  some  loud  morn  of  March  may  bear  a  rose — 
The  impress  of  a  song  that  Arnaut  sang. 

"  'Smith  of  his  mother-tongue,'  the  Frenchman  sang 
Of  Launcelot  and  of  Galahad,  the  rhyme 
8 


Il6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

That  beat  so  blood-like  at  its  core  of  rose, 
It  stirred  the  sweet  Francesca's  gentle  heart 
To  take  that  kiss  that  brought  her  so  much  woe, 
And  sealed  in  fire  her  martyrdom  of  love. 

"  And  Dante,  full  of  her  immortal  love, 
Stayed  his  dear  song,  and  softly,  fondly  sang 
As  though  his  voice  broke  with  that  weight  of  woe  ; 
And  to  this  day  we  think  of  Arnaut's  rhyme 
Whenever  pity  at  the  laboring  heart 
On  fair  Francesca's  memory  drops  the  rose. 

"  Ah  !  sovereign  Love,  forgive  this  weaker  rhyme  ! 
The  men  of  old  who  sang  were  great  at  heart. 
Yet  have  we  too  known  woe,  and  worn  thy  rose." 

— E.  W.  Gosse,  Sestina. 

A  contemporary  French  poet,  M.  de  Gramont,  has 
adapted  this  Provengal  form  to  more  modem  French 
versification.  He  began  by  making  the  six  final  words 
rhyme  by  threes,  and  he  changed  the  rhythm  from 
hendecasyllabics  to  Alexandrines.  The  form  he  thus 
modified  he  has  used  freely  himself,  and  he  has  been 
foUowred  by  a  few  French  poets  and  by  the  one  Eng- 
lish poet  who  has  shown  the  greatest  power  of  con- 
quering rebel  rhythms. 

"  I  saw  my  soul  rest  upon  a  day 

As  a  bird  sleeping  in  the  nest  of  night. 

Among  soft  leaves  that  give  the  starlight  way, 
To  touch  its  wings  but  not  its  eyes  with  light ; 

So  that  it  knew  as  one  in  visions  may. 
And  knew  not  as  men  waking  of  delight. 


OF  OTHER  FIXED  FORMS  OF    VERSE.   117 

"  This  was  the  measure  of  my  soul's  delight  ; 

It  has  no  power  of  joy  to  fly  by  day, 
Nor  part  in  the  large  lordship  of  the  light, 

But  in  a  secret,  moon-beholden  way 
Had  all  its  will  of  dreams  and  pleasant  night, 

And  all  the  love  and  life  that  sleepers  may. 

"  But  such  life's  triumph  as  men  waking  may 
It  might  not  have  to  feed  its  faint  delight 

Between  the  stars  by  night  and  sun  by  day, 
Shut  up  with  green  leaves  and  a  little  light  ; 

Because  its  way  was  as  a  lost  star's  way, 
A  world's  not  wholly  known  of  day  or  night. 

*'  All  loves,  and  dreams,  and  sounds,  and  gleams,  of  night 
Made  it  all  music  that  such  minstrels  may. 

And  all  they  had  they  gave  it  of  delight  ; 
But  in  the  full  face  of  the  fire  of  day 

What  place  shall  be  for  any  starry  light. 
What  part  of  heaven  in  all  the  wide  sun's  way  ? 

"  Yet  the  soul  woke  not,  sleeping  by  the  way, 

Watched  as  a  nursling  of  the  large-eyed  night. 

And  sought  no  strength  nor  knowledge  of  the  day. 
Nor  closer  touch  conclusive  of  delight, 

Nor  mightier  joy,  nor  timer  than  dreamers  may. 
Nor  more  of  song  than  they  nor  more  of  light. 

"  For  who  sleeps  once  and  sees  the  secret  light 
Whereby  sleep  shows  the  soul  a  fair  way 
Between  the  rise  and  rest  of  day  and  night. 

Shall  care  no  more  to  fare  as  all  men  may. 
But  be  his  place  of  pain  or  of  delight, 

There  shall  he  dwell,  beholding  night  as  day. 


Il8  THE  RHYMESTER. 

"  Song,  have  thy  day  and  take  thy  fill  of  light 
Before  the  night  be  fallen  across  thy  way  ; 
Sing  while  he  may,  man  hath  no  long  delight." 

— A.  C.  Swinburne,  Sestina. 

In  French  "  light  "  and  "  delight  "  are  admirable 
rhymes,  but  in  English  they  are  not  rhymes  at  all. 
Perhaps  Mr.  Swinburne,  having  taken  a  French  form, 
thought  himself  justified  in  following  the  French  prac- 
tice of  rhyming.  From  Mr.  Gosse's  poem  and  from 
Mr.  Swinburne's  the  secret  of  the  construction  of  the 
sestina  may  be  learned.  The  most  obvious  rule  is  that 
each  stanza  has  at  the  end  of  its  first  hne  the  final 
word  of  the  preceding  stanza.  Then  the  second  line 
terminates  with  the  final  word  of  the  first  line  of  the 
preceding  stanza.  And  so  the  final  words  are  chosen 
alternately  from  the  last  three  hues  and  the  first  three 
lines  of  the  stanza  preceding.  The  whole  subject,  and 
indeed  all  the  forms  treated  in  this  and  the  two  chap- 
ters before,  can  best  be  studied  in  M.  de  Gramont's 
"  Les  Vers  Frangais  et  leur  Prosodie  "  (Paris  :  Hetzel), 
and  in  M.  de  Banville's  "  Petit  Traite  de  Poesie  Fran- 
?aise"  (Paris,  Charpentier,  1881). 


A   FIT  OF  RHYME   AGAINST   RHYME. 


Rhyme,  the  rack  of  finest  wits, 
That  expresseth  but  by  fits 

True  conceit, 
Spoiling  senses  of  their  treasure, 
Cozening  judgment  with  a  measure. 

But  false  weight ; 
Wresting  words  from  their  true  calling  ; 
Propping  verse  for  fear  of  falling 

To  the  ground  ; 
Jointing  syllables,  drowning  letters. 
Fastening  vowels,  as  with  fetters 

They  were  bound  ! 
Soon  as  lazy  thou  wert  known. 
All  good  poetry  hence  was  flown. 

And  art  banished  ; 
For  a  thousand  years  together, 
All  Parnassus  green  did  wither. 

And  wit  vanished. 


120  THE  RHYMESTER. 

Pegasus  did  fly  away  ; 

At  the  wells  no  Muse  did  stay, 

But  bewailed. 
So  I  see  the  fountain  dry, 
And  Apollo's  music  die, 

All  light  failed. 
Starveling  rhymes  did  fill  the  stage — 
Not  a  poet  in  an  age, 

Worthy  crowning  ; 
Not  a  work  deserving  bays, 
Nor  a  line  deserving  praise, 

Pallas  frowning. 
Greek  was  free  from  rhyme's  infection  ; 
Happy  Greek,  by  this  protection. 

Was  not  spoiled  ; 
Whilst  the  Latin,  queen  of  tongues, 
Is  not  yet  free  from  rhyme's  wrongs. 

But  rests  foiled. 
Scarce  the  hill  again  does  flourish. 
Scarce  the  world  a  wit  doth  nourish, 

To  restore 
Phoebus  to  his  crown  again. 
And  the  Muses  to  their  brain. 

As  before. 
Vulgar  languages  that  want 
Words  and  sweetness  and  be  scant 

Of  true  measure. 


A   FIT  OF  RHYME  AGAINST  RHYME.    121 

Tyrant  rhyme  hath  so  abused 
That  they  long  since  have  refused 

Other  censure. 
He  that  first  invented  thee. 
May  his  joints  tormented  be, 

Cramped  for  ever  ; 
Still  may  syllables  jar  with  time, 
Still  may  reason  war  with  rhyme, 

Resting  never  ! 
May  his  sense,  when  it  would  meet 
The  cold  tumor  in  his  feet, 

Grow  unsounder ; 
And  his  title  be  long  Fool, 
That  in  rearing  such  a  school 

Was  the  founder. 

— Ben  Jonson. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


A 

AB,  or  ABB. 
As  in  cab.     Bab,  cab,  dab,  Mab,  gab,  nab,  blab, 
crab,  drab,  scab,  stab,  slab,  St.  Abb. 
As  in  squab.     See  Ob. 

ABE. 
Babe,  astrolabe. 

AC. 

Zodiac,    maniac,    demoniac,    ammoniac,   almanac, 

symposiac,    hypochondriac,     aphrodisiac,    crack,    lac, 

brach,  back,  hack,  bric-a-brac,  jack,  lack,  pack,  quack, 

tack,  sack,   rack,   black,    clack,   crack,   knack,   slack, 

snack,   stack,   track,   wrack,    attack,   smack,   thwack, 

arrack. 

ACE. 

Ace,  dace,  pace,  face,  lace,  mace,  race,  brace,  chace, 
grace,  place,  Thrace,  space,  trace,  apace,  deface,  efface, 
disgrace,  displace,  misplace,  embrace,  grimace,  inter- 
lace, retrace,  populace,  carapace,  base,  case,  abase, 
debase,  vase. 


124  "^^^  RHYMESTER. 

ACH. 
See  Atch. 

ACHE. 
See  Ake. 

ACS. 
See  Ax. 

ACT. 

Act,  fact,  fract,  pact,  tract,  attract,  abstract,  extract, 
tact,  intact,  contact,  compact,  contract,  subact,  co-act, 
detract,  distract,  exact,  protract,  enact,  infract,  sub- 
tract, transact,  retract,  re-act,  cataract,  counteract,  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  ACK. 

AD.  or  ADD. 

As  in  bad.  Add,  bad,  dad,  gad,  fad,  had,  lad,  mad, 
pad,  sad,  brad,  clad,  glad,  plaid  (?),  cad,  chad,  shad, 
etc. 

As  in  wad.     See  Od. 

ADE. 

Cade,  fade,  made,  jade,  lade,  wade,  blade,  bade, 
glade,  shade,  spade,  trade,  degrade,  evade,  dissuade, 
invade,  persuade,  blockade,  brigade,  estrade,  arcade, 
esplanade,  cavalcade,  cascade,  cockade,  crusade,  mas- 
querade, renegade,  retrograde,  serenade,  gambade,  bro- 
cade, ambuscade,  cannonade,  palisade,  rhodomontade, 
aid,  maid,  raid,  braid,  lemonade,  staid,  upbraid,  afraid, 
and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ay, 
Ey,  and  ElGH.  (The  word  pomade  still  retains  the 
French  ade,  and  rhymes  with  huzzaed,  psha'd,  baad.) 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  125 

ADGE. 
Badge,  cadge. 

ADZE. 

Adze,  rhymes  plural  of  nouns,  or  third  person  sin- 
gular present  of  verbs,  in  Ad,  Add. 

AEN. 
Ta'en.     See  AiN. 

AFE. 

Safe,  chafe,  vouchsafe,  waif,  Ralph. 

AFF. 

Gaff,  chaff,  draff,  graff,  quaff,  staff,  distaff,  engraff, 
epitaph,  cenotaph,  paragraph,  photograph,  telegraph, 
behalf,  laugh,  half,  calf. 

AFT. 

Aft,  haft,  raft,  daft,  waft,  craft,  shaft,  abaft,  graft, 
draft,  ingraft,  handicraft,  draught,  and  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  Aff  and  AUGH,  etc. 

AG. 

Bag,  cag,  fag,  gag,  hag,  jag,  lag,  nag,  quag,  rag, 
sag,  tag,  wag,  brag,  crag,  drag,  flag,  knag,  shag,  snag, 
stag,  swag,  scrag,  Brobdingnag. 

AGD. 

Smaragd,  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in 
AG. 


126  THE  RHYMESTER. 

AGE, 

Age,  cage,  gage,  mage,  page,  rage,  sage,  wage, 
stage,  swage,  assuage,  engage,  disengage,  enrage,  pre- 
sage, appanage,  concubinage,  heritage,  hermitage,  pa- 
rentage, personage,  parsonage,  pasturage,  patronage, 
pilgrimage,  villanage,  equipage,  and  gauge. 


AGM. 

Diaphragm,  rhymes  Am. 

AGNE. 

Champagne. 

See 

Am. 

Plague,  vague. 

AGUE. 

Ah,  bah,  shah. 

pah 

AH. 
AI. 

Serai,  almai,  ai 

,  papai,  ay. 

See  Ade. 

AID. 

See  Ate. 

AIGHT. 

See  Ane. 

AIGN. 

AIL. 

Bail,  brail,  fail,  grail,  hail,  jail,  mail,  nail,  pail,  quail, 
rail,  sail,  shail,  tail,  wail,  flail,  frail,  snail,  trail,  assail, 
avail,  detail,  bewail,  entail,  prevail,  aventail,  wassail, 
retail,  countervail,  curtail,  Abigail,  ale,  bale,  dale,  gale. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  127 

hale,  male,  pale,  sale,  tale,  vale,  wale,  scale,  shale,  stale, 
swale,  whale,  wale,  impale,  exhale,  regale,  veil,  nightin- 
gale. 

AIM. 
See  Ame. 

AIN. 
Cain,  blain,  brain,  chain,  fain,  gain,  grain,  lain,  main, 
pain,  rain,  vain,  wain,  drain,  plain,  slain,  Spain,  stain, 
swain,  train,  twain,  sprain,  strain,  abstain,  amain,  at- 
tain, complain,  contain,  constrain,  detain,  disdain,  dis- 
train, enchain,  entertain,  explain,  maintain,  ordain,  per- 
tain, obtain,  refrain,  regain,  remain,  restrain,  retain, 
sustain,  appertain,  thane,  Dane,  bane,  cane,  crane,  fane, 
Jane,  lane,  mane,  plane,  vane,  wane,  profane,  hurri- 
cane, deign,  arraign,  campaign,  feign,  reign,  vein,  rein, 
skein,  thegn,  champagne. 

AINST. 
Against,  rhymes  abbreviated  second  person  singu- 
lar present  of  verbs  in  Am,  Ane,  Ein,  Eign,  Aign. 

AIQUE. 
Caique,    See  Ake. 

AINT. 
Ain't,  mayn't,  faint,  plaint,  quaint,  saint,  taint,  teint, 
acquaint,  attaint,  complaint,  constraint,  restraint,  dis- 
traint, feint. 

AIR  and  AIRE. 
See  Are. 


128  THE  RHYMESTER. 

AIRD. 

Laird  rhymes  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in 
Are. 

AIRN. 
Bairn,  cairn. 

AISE. 
See  AZE. 

AISLE. 
Aisle.     See  Ile. 

AIT. 
See  Ate. 

AITH. 

Faith,  wraith,  rath,  baith. 

AIZE. 
See  AZE. 

AK. 
Dak  rhymes  Alk. 

AKE. 

Ake,  bake,  cake,  hake,  lake,  make,  quake,  rake,  sake, 
take,  wake,  brake,  drake,  flake,  shake,  snake,  stake, 
strake,  spake,  awake,  betake,  forsake,  mistake,  partake, 
overtake,  undertake,  bespake,  mandrake,  break,  steak, 
ache,  alcaic,  caique,  opaque. 

AL. 
Shall,  pal,  mall,  sal,  gal,  fal-lal,  cabal,  canal,  animal, 
admiral,  cannibal,  capital,  cardinal,  comical,  conjugal. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


129 


corporal,  criminal,  critical,  festival,  fineal,  funeral,  gen- 
eral, hospital,  interval,  liberal,  madrigal,  literal,  magical, 
mineral,  mystical,  musical,  natural,  original,  pastoral, 
pedestal,  personal,  physical,  poetical,  political,  princi- 
pal, prodigal,  prophetical,  rational,  satirical,  reciprocal, 
rhetorical,  several,  temporal,  tragical,  tyrannical,  carni- 
val, schismatical,  whimsical,  arsenal,  and  many  others, 

ALD. 

Bald,  scald,  rhymes  the  preterites  and  participles 
of  verbs  in  ALL,  AUL,  and  AwL. 

ALE. 
See  Ail. 

ALF. 
See  Aff. 

ALK. 

Balk,  chalk,  stalk,  talk,  walk,  calk,  dak,  squauk, 
baulk,  caulk,  catafalque,  hawk,  auk. 

ALL. 

All,  ball,  cajl,  gall,  caul,  haul,  Gaul,  appal,  enthral, 
awl,  bawl,  brawl,  crawl,  scrawl,  sprawl,  shawl,  squall, 
hall,  mawl,  stall,  fall,  pall,  tall,  wall,  install,  forestall, 
thrall. 

ALM,  ALMS. 

Calm,  balm,  becalm,  psalm,  palm,  embalm  ;  plu- 
rals and  third  persons  singular  rhyme  with  Alms,  as 
alms,  calms,  becalms,  etc. 


130  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ALP. 

Scalp,  Alp. 

ALOUE. 
Catafalque.     See  Alk. 

ALSE. 
False,  valse. 

ALT. 

As  in  halt.  Halt,  malt,  exalt,  salt,  vault,  assault, 
default,  and  fault. 

As  in  shalt.     Asphalt,  alt,  shalt. 

ALVE. 

As  in  calve.     Calve,  halve,  salve. 
As  in  valve.     Valve,  alve. 

AM  and  AMB. 

Am,  dam,  ham,  pam,  ram,  Sam,  cram,  dram,  flam, 
sham,  swam,  kam,  clam,  epigram,  anagram,  damn, 
lamb,  jam,  jamb,  oriflamb,  ma'am,  telegram,  lamm. 

AME. 

Blame,  came,  dame,  same,  flame,  farpe,  frame, 
game,  lame,  name,  prame,  same,  tame,  shame,  inflame, 
became,  defame,  misname,  misbecame,  overcame,  aim, 
claim,  maim,  acclaim,  declaim,  disclaim,  exclaim,  pro- 
claim, reclaim. 

AMM. 

Lamm.     See  Am. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  131 

AMME. 
Oriflamme.    See  Am. 

AMN. 
Damn.     See  Am. 

AMP. 
As  in  camp.     Camp,  champ,  cramp,  damp,  stamp, 
vamp,  lamp,  clam.p,  decamp,  encamp. 
As  in  swamp.     Swamp,  pomp.  romp. 

AN. 

As  in  ban.  Ban,  can,  Dan,  fan,  man,  Nan,  pan, 
ran,  tan,  van,  bran,  clan,  plan,  scan,  span,  than,  unman, 
foreran,  began,  trepan,  courtesan,  partisan,  artisan, 
pelican,  caravan,  shandydan,  barracan. 

As  in  wan.     Wan,  swan.     See  On. 

ANCE. 

Chance,  dance,  glance,  lance,  trance,  prance,  in- 
trance,  romance,  advance,  mischance,  complaisance, 
circumstance,  countenance,  deliverance,  consonance, 
dissonance,  extravagance,  ignorance,  inheritance,  main- 
tenance, temperance,  intemperance,  exorbitance,  ordi- 
nance, concordance,  sufferance,  sustenance,  utterance, 
arrogance,  vigilance,  expanse,  enhance,  France.  [Here 
the  atice  is  pronounced  differently  by  different  people, 
dnce  and  dnce^ 

ANCH. 

Branch,  staunch,  launch,  blanch,  haunch,  paunch, 
ganch. 

9 


132 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


AND. 

As  in  band.  And,  band,  hand,  land,  rand,  sand, 
brand,  bland,  grand,  gland,  stand,  strand,  command, 
demand,  countermand,  disband,  expand,  withstand, 
understand,  reprimand,  contraband,  and  preterites  and 
participles  of  verbs  in  An. 

As  in  wand.     Wand.     See  Ond. 

ANE. 

See  Am. 

ANG. 

Bang,  fang,  gang,  hang,  pang,  tang,  twang,  sang, 
slang,  rang,  harangue,  swang,  stang,  lang,  chang,  clang. 

ANGE. 

Change,  grange,  range,  strange,  estrange,  arrange, 
exchange,  interchange. 

ANGUE. 
Harangue,  rhymes  Ang. 

ANK. 

Yank,  bank,  rank,  blank,  shank,  clank,  dank,  drank, 
slank,  frank,  spank,  stank,  brank,  hank,  lank,  plank, 
prank,  rank,  thank,  disrank,  mountebank. 

ANSE. 
See  Ance. 

ANT. 

As  in  ant.  Ant,  cant,  chant,  grant,  pant,  plant, 
rant,  slant,  aslant,  complaisant,  displant,  enchant,  gal- 


DICTIONARY   OF  RHYMES. 


133 


lant,  implant,  recant,  supplant,  transplant,  absonant, 
adamant,  arrogant,  combatant,  consonant,  cormorant, 
protestant,  significant,  visitant,  covenant,  dissonant, 
disputant,  elegant,  elephant,  exorbitant,  conversant,  ex- 
travagant, ignorant,  insignificant,  inhabitant,  militant, 
predominant,  sycophant,  vigilant,  petulant,  can't,  shan't, 
aunt,  haunt. 

As  in  ivaitt.     Want,  upon't,  font. 

AP. 

As  in  cap.  Cap,  dap,  gap,  hap,  lap,  map,  nap,  pap, 
rap;  sap,  tap,  chap,  clap,  trap,  fap,  flap,  knap,  slap, 
snap,  wrap,  scrap,  strap,  enwrap,  entrap,  mishap,  affrap, 
mayhap. 

As  in  swap.     Swap.     See  Op. 

APE. 
Ape,  cape,  shape,  grape,  rape,  scape,  scrape,  escape, 
nape,  chape,  trape,  jape,  crape,  tape,  etc. 

APH. 
See  Aff. 

APSE. 
Apse,  lapse,  elapse,  relapse,  perhaps,  and  the  plurals 
of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  present  tense  of 
verbs  in  A  P. 

APT. 
Apt,  adapt.     Rhymes  the  preterites  and  participles 
of  verbs  in  Ap. 

AQUE. 
Opaque.     See  Ake. 


134 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


AR. 

As  in  bar.  Czar,  bar,  car,  far,  jar,  mar,  par,  tar, 
spar,  scar,  star,  char,  afar,  debar,  petar,  unbar,  catarrh, 
particular,  perpendicular,  secular,  angular,  regular,  pop- 
ular, singular,  titular,  vinegar,  scimetar,  calendar,  ava- 
tar, cinnabar,  caviare,  are. 

As  in  war.     See  Or. 

ARB. 
Barb,  garb,  rhubarb. 

ARCE. 
Farce,  parse,  sarse,  sparse.    {Scarce  has  no  rhyme.) 

ARCH. 

As  in  march.  Arch,  march,  larch,  parch,  starch, 
countermarch. 

As  in  hierarch.     Hierarch,  heresiarch.     See  Ark. 

ARD. 

As  in  bard.  Bard,  card,  guard,  hard,  lard,  nard, 
shard,  yard,  bagilard,  bombard,  discard,  regard,  inter- 
lard, retard,  disregard,  and  the  preterites  and  parti- 
ciples of  verbs  in  Ar. 

As  in  ward.     Ward,  sward,  afford,  restored,  etc. 

ARE. 
As  in  bare.      Care,   dare,  fare,  gare,  hare,   mare, 
pare,  tare,  ware,  flare,  glare,  scare,  share,  snare,  spare, 
square,   stare,   sware,  yare,    prepare,  aware,   beware. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  135 

compare,  declare,  ensnare,  air,  vair,  fair,  hair,  lair, 
pair,  chair,  stair,  affair,  debonnair,  despair,  impair, 
glaire,  repair,  etc. ;  bear,  pear,  swear,  tear,  wear,  for- 
bear, forswear,  etc. ;  there,  were,  where,  ere,  e'er,  ne'er, 
elsewhere,  whate'er,  howe'er,  howsoe'er,  whene'er, 
where'er ;  heir,  coheir,  their. 
As  in  are.     Rhymes  Ar. 

ARES. 

Unawares.  Rhymes  theirs,  and  the  plurals  of 
nouns  and  third  persons  singular  of  verbs  in  are,  air, 
eir,  ear. 

ARF. 

Dwarf,  wharf.     {Scarf  has  no  rhyme.) 

ARGE. 

Barge,  charge,  large,  marge,  targe,  discharge,  o'er- 
charge,  surcharge,  enlarge. 

ARK. 
Ark,  bark,  cark,  dark,  dark,  lark,  mark,  park,  chark, 
shark,  spark,  stark,  embark,  remark,  hierarch,  heresi- 
arch. 

ARL. 
Carl,  gnarl,  snarl,  marl,  harl,  parle. 

ARIVI. 

As  in  arm.  Arm,  barm,  charm,  farm,  harm,  alarm, 
disarm. 

As  in  warm.     Warm,  swarm.     See  Orm. 


136  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ARN. 
As  in  bar7i.     Barn,  yarn,  tarn,  darn. 
As  in  warn.     Warn,  forewarn.     See  Orn. 

ARP. 

As  in  caj'p.     Carp,  harp,  sharp,  counterscarp. 
As  in  warp.     Warp.     See  Orp. 

ARRH. 
Catarrh.     See  Ar. 

ARSE. 
See  Arce. 

ARSH. 
Harsh,  marsh. 

ART. 

As  in  art.  Heart,  art,  cart,  dart,  hart,  mart,  part, 
smart,  tart,  start,  apart,  depart,  impart,  dispart,  coun- 
terpart. 

As  in  wart.     See  Ort. 

ARTH. 

Swarth,  forth,  north. 

ARVE. 
Carve,  starve. 

AS. 

As  in  was.  Was,  'cos,  poz. 
As  \x\gas.  Gas.  See  Ass. 
As  in  has.     Has,  as. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  137 

ASE. 

As  in  base.     See  ACE. 
As  in  phrase.     See  AZE. 

ASH. 

As  in  ash.  Ash,  cash,  dash,  clash,  crash,  flash, 
gash,  gnash,  hash,  lash,  plash,  bash,  pash,  brash,  rash, 
thrash,  slash,  trash,  abash,  sash,  splash. 

As  in  wash.     Wash,  bosh,  squash,  quash,  swash. 

ASK. 
Ask,  task,  bask,  cask,  flask,  mask,  hask,  casque. 

ASM. 

Chasm,  spasm,  miasm,  enthusiasm,  cataplasm, 
phantasm. 

ASP. 

Asp,  clasp,  rasp,  gasp,  grasp,  hasp,  wasp  (J). 

ASQUE. 
Casque.     See  Ask. 

ASS. 

Ass,  brass,  class,  grass,  lass,  mass,  pass,  alas,  amass, 
cuirass,  repass,  surpass,  morass,  gas,  alias. 

AST. 

Cast,  last,  blast,  mast,  past,  vast,  hast,  fast,  aghast, 
avast,  forecast,  overcast,  outcast,  repast,  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ass. 


138  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ASTE. 
Baste,  chaste,  haste,  paste,  taste,  waste,  distaste, 
waist,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  under 
Ace. 

AT. 

As  in  at.     At,  bat,  cat,  hat,  fat,  mat,  pat,  rat,  sat, 
tat,  vat,  brat,  chat,  flat,  lat,  sprat,  that,  gnat. 
As  in  what.     See  Ot. 

ATCH. 

As  in  catch.  Catch,  match,  hatch,  latch,  patch, 
scratch,  smatch,  snatch,  dispatch,  ratch,  slatch,  swatch, 
attach,  detach,  thatch. 

As  in  watch.     Watch.     See  Otch. 

ATE. 

Bate,  date,  fate,  gate,  grate,  hate,  mate,  pate,  plate, 
prate,  rate,  sate,  state,  scate,  slate,  abate,  belate,  col- 
late, create,  debate,  elate,  dilate,  estate,  ingrate,  innate, 
rebate,  relate,  sedate,  translate,  abdicate,  abominate, 
abrogate,  accelerate,  accommodate,  accumulate,  accu- 
rate, adequate,  affectionate,  advocate,  adulterate,  ag- 
gravate, agitate,  alienate,  animate,  annihilate,  antedate, 
anticipate,  antiquate,  arbitrate,  arrogate,  articulate, 
assassinate,  calculate,  capitulate,  captivate,  celebrate, 
circulate,  coagulate,  commemorate,  commiserate,  com- 
municate, compassionate,  confederate,  congratulate, 
congregate,  consecrate,  contaminate,  corroborate,  cul- 
tivate, candidate,  co-operate,  celibate,  considerate, 
consulate,  capacitate,  debilitate,  dedicate,  degenerate 
delegate,  deliberate,  denominate,  depopulate,  dislocate, 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


139 


deprecate,  discriminate,  derogate,  dissipate,  delicate, 
disconsolate,  desolate,  desperate,  educate,  effeminate, 
elevate,  emulate,  estimate,  elaborate,  equivocate,  eradi- 
cate, evaporate,  exaggerate,  exasperate,  expostulate, 
exterminate,  extricate,  facilitate,  fortunate,  generate, 
gratulate,  hesitate,  illiterate,  illuminate,  irritate,  imitate, 
immoderate,  impetrate,  importunate,  imprecate,  inani- 
mate, innovate,  instigate,  intemperate,  intimate,  intimi- 
date, intoxicate,  intricate,  invalidate,  inveterate,  inviolate, 
legitimate,  magistrate,  meditate,  mitigate,  moderate, 
necessitate,  nominate,  obstinate,  participate,  passionate, 
penetrate,  perpetrate,  personate,  potentate,  precipitate, 
predestinate,  predominate,  premeditate,  prevaricate,  pro- 
crastinate, profligate,  prognosticate,  propagate,  recrimi- 
nate, regenerate,  regulate,  reiterate,  reprobate,  reverber- 
ate, ruminate,  separate,  sophisticate,  stipulate,  subju- 
gate, subordinate,  suffocate,  terminate,  titivate,  tolerate, 
vindicate,  violate,  unfortunate,  bait,  strait,  waite,  await,  / 
great,  t^te-a-t^te,  eight,  weight,  straight.  'njA\/:Y~c\^(x^ 
Ate  (from  ea().     Rhymes  yet. 

ATH. 

As  in  bath.     Bath,  path,  swath,  wrath,  hath,  after- 
math. 

As  in  rath.     See  Aith. 

ATHE. 

Bathe,  swathe,  rathe,  scathe. 

AUB. 
Daub,  kebaub,  Punjaub. 


140  THE  RHYMESTER. 

AUD. 

Fraud,  laud,  applaud,  defraud,  broad,  abroad,  and 
the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  under  Aw. 

AUGH. 

As  in  laugh.     See  Aff. 

As  in  usquebaugh.     See  Aw. 

AUGHT. 

As  in  draught.     Draught,  quaffed,  etc. 
As  in  caught.     See  AUT. 


AUK. 

See  Alk. 

AULM. 

Haulm,  shawm. 

AULK. 

Caulk.    See  Alk. 

AULT. 

See  Alt. 

AUN. 

See  Awn. 

AUNCH. 

See  Anch. 

AUND. 
Maund,  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  AwN. 

AUNCE. 
Askaunce,  romance,  glance,  etc. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  141 

AUNT. 

Aunt,   daunt,   gaunt,   haunt,    jaunt,   taunt,   vaunt, 

avaunt,  shan't,  can't. 

AUR. 
See  Ore. 

AUSE. 

Cause,  pause,  clause,  applause,  gauze,  because,  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  of  verbs 
in  Aw. 

AUST. 

Holocaust.     See  OST. 

AUT. 

Taut,  caught,  ought,  haught,  sought,  taught,  fraught, 
distraught,  nought.  ,   ,  o^.t 

AUZE.  ^ 

See  AuSE. 

AVE. 

Cave,  brave,  gave,  grave,  crave,  lave,  nave,  knave, 
pave,  rave,  save,  shave,  slave,  stave,  wavT,  behave, 
deprave,  engrave,  outbrave,  forgave,  misgave,  archi- 
trave.    {Have  has  no  rhyme.) 

AW. 

Craw,  daw,  law,  chaw,  claw,  draw,  flaw,  gnaw,  jaw, 
maw,  paw,  raw,  saw,  scraw,  shaw,  straw,  thaw,  with- 
draw, foresaw,  usquebaugh. 

AWD. 
See  AUD. 


1^2  THE  RHYMESTER. 

AWK. 
See  Alk. 

AWL. 
See  All. 

AWM. 

Shawm.     See  Aulm. 

AWN. 
Dawn,  brawn,  fawn,  pawn,  spawn,  drawn,  yawn, 
awn,  withdrawn,  aun,  shaun,  lawn,  prawn. 

AX. 
Ax,  tax,  lax,  pax,  wax,  relax,  flax,  knicknacks,  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  of  verbs  in 
ACK. 

AY. 

Bray,  clay,  day,  dray,  tray,  flay,  fray,  gay,  hay,  jay, 
lay,  may,  nay,  pay,  play,  ray,  say,  way,  pray,  spray, 
slay,  stay,  stray,  sway,  tway,  fay,  affray,  allay,  array, 
astray,  away,  belay,  bewray,  betray,  decay,  defray, 
delay,  disarray,  display,  dismay,  essay,  forelay,  gain- 
say, inlay,  relay,  repay,  roundelay,  virelay,  neigh,  weigh, 
inveigh,  shay,  prey,  they,  convey,  yea,  obey,  purvey, 
survey,  disobey,  gray,  aye,  denay. 

AZE. 

Craze,  draze,  blaze,  gaze,  glaze,  raze,  maze,  amaze, 
graze,  raise,  praise,  dispraise,  phrase,  paraphrase,  and 
the  nouns  plural  and  third  persons  singular  of  the 
present  tense  of  verbs  in  Ay,  Eigh,  and  Ey. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  143 

E 

E. 

See  EE. 

CRE,  CHRE,  TRE. 
Sepulchre,  massacre,  theatre.     See  Er. 

EA. 
As  in  sea.     See  Ee. 
As  vayea.     See  Ay. 

EACE. 
See  Ease. 

EACH. 

Beach,  breach,  bleach,  each,  peach,  preach,  teach, 
impeach,  beech,  leech,  speech,  beseech. 

EAD. 

As  in  bread.     See  Ed. 
As  in  read.     See  Eed. 

EAF. 

As  in  sheaf.     See  lEF. 
As  in  deaf.     See  Ef. 

EAGUE. 
League,  Teague,  intrigue,  fatigue. 

EAK. 
As  in  beak.     Beak,  speak,  bleak,  creak,  freak,  leak, 
peak,  sneak,  squeak,  streak,  weak,  tweak,  wreak,  be- 


144 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


speak,  cheek,  leek,  eke,  creek,  meek,  reek,  seek,  sleek, 
pique,  bezique,  clique,  critique,  antique,  oblique,  week, 
shriek. 

As  in  break.     See  Ake. 

EAL. 

Deal,  heal,  reveal,  meal,  peal,  seal,  steal,  teal,  veal, 
weal,  squeal,  leal,  zeal,  repeal,  conceal,  congeal,  repeal, 
anneal,  appeal,  wheal,  eel,  heel,  feel,  keel,  kneel,  peel, 
reel,  steal,  wheel.  (Real  is  a  dissyllable,  and  therefore 
does  not  count  here.) 

EALD. 
Weald.     See  Ield. 

EALM. 
See  Elm. 

EALTH. 

Health,  wealth,  stealth,  commonwealth. 

EAM. 

Bream,  cream,  gleam,  seam,  scream,  stream,  team, 
beam,  dream,  enseam,  scheme,  theme,  blaspheme,  ex- 
treme, supreme,  deem,  teem,  beseem,  misdeem,  esteem, 
disesteem,  redeem,  seem,  beteem. 

EAMT. 
Dreamt,  exempt,  attempt,  empt. 

EAN. 

Bean,  clean,  dean,  glean,  lean,  mean,  wean,  yean, 
demean,  unclean,  convene,  demesne,  intervene,  mien. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


^45 


hyen,  machine,  keen,  screen,  seen,  skean,  green,  spleen, 
between,  careen,  teen,  foreseen,  serene,  obscene,  ter- 
rene, queen,  spleen,  etc. 

EANS. 

Means,  rhymes  plural  of  nouns,  and  third  persons 
singular  present  of  verbs,  in  Ean,  Een,  Ene. 

EANSE. 

Cleanse,  plural  of  nouns,  and  third  person  singular 
present  of  verbs,  in  En. 


See  Ent. 

EANT. 

See  Eep. 

EAP. 

See  Eer  and  AlR. 

EAR. 

EARCH. 

Search,  research. 

See  Urch 

EARD. 

As  in  heard.     See  Urd. 

As  in  beard.     Beard,  feared,  revered,  weird,  pre- 
terites and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ear,  Ere,  etc. 

EARL. 
Earl,  pearl,  girl,  curl,  churl,  vyhirl,  purl,  furl,  thirl, 
twirl. 


146 


See  Ern. 
See  Erse. 
See  Art. 


THE  RHYMESTER. 
EARN. 

EARSE. 

EART. 


EARTH. 
Earth,  dearth,  birth,  mirth,  worth,  Perth,  berth. 

EASE. 

As  in  cease.  Cease,  lease,  release,  grease,  decease, 
decrease,  increase,  release,  surcease,  peace,  piece,  niece, 
fleece,  geese,  frontispiece,  apiece,  etc. 

As  in  disease.     See  Eeze. 

EAST. 

East,  feast,  least,  beast,  priest,  the  preterites  and 
participles  of  verbs  in  Ease,  as  in  cease. 

EAT. 

As  in  bleat.  Bleat,  eat,  feat,  heat,  meat,  neat,  seat, 
effete,  treat,  wheat,  beat,  cheat,  defeat,  estreat,  escheat, 
entreat,  retreat,  obsolete,  replete,  concrete,  complete, 
feet,  fleet,  greet,  meet,  sheet,  sleet,  street,  sweet,  dis- 
creet. 

As  in  great.     See  Ate. 

As  in  threat.     See  Et. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  147 

EATH. 

As  in  breath.  Breath,  death,  saith,  Elizabeth,  etc., 
and  antiquated  third  person  singular  present,  accented 
on  the  antepenult  (e.  g.,  "  encountereth  "). 

As  in  heath.  Heath,  sheath,  teeth,  wreath,  be- 
neath. 

EATHE. 
Breathe,  sheathe,  wreathe,   inwreathe,   bequeathe, 
seethe. 

EAU. 
See  O. 

EAVE. 

Cleave,  heave,  interweave,  leave,  weave,  bereave, 
inweave,  receive,  conceive,  deceive,  perceive,  eve, 
grieve,  sleeve,  thieve,  aggrieve,  achieve,  believe,  dis- 
believe, relieve,  reprieve,  retrieve. 

EB,  and  EBB. 
Web,  neb,  ebb,  bleb. 

ECK,  and  EC. 
Beck,  peck,  neck,  check,  fleck,  deck,  speck,  wreck, 
hypothec,  spec,  geek. 

EKS. 
I'fecks,  third  person  singular  of  verbs  and  plural  of 
nouns  in  ECK. 
10 


148  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ECT. 

Sect,  affect,  correct,  incorrect,  collect,  deject,  detect, 
direct,  disrespect,  disaffect,  dissect,  effect,  elect,  eject, 
erect,  expect,  indirect,  infect,  inspect,  neglect,  object, 
project,  protect,  recollect,  reflect,  reject,  respect,  select, 
subject,  suspect,  architect,  circumspect,  direct,  intel- 
lect, the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  ECK,  etc. 

ED. 

Bed,  bled,  fed,  fled,  bred,  Ted,  red,  shred,  shed, 
sped,  wed,  abed,  imbred,  misled,  said,  bread,  dread, 
dead,  head,  lead,  read,  spread,  thread,  tread,  behead, 
o'erspread,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs, 
which,  when  the  "  ed "  (pronounced)  is  added,  have 
the  accent  on  the  antepenultimate  (e.  g.,  vanished ; 
but  see  Chapter  VIII). 

EDE. 
See  Eed. 

EDGE. 

Edge,  wedge,  fledge,  hedge,  ledge,  pledge,  sedge, 
allege,  kedge,  privilege,  sacrilege,  sortilege. 

EE. 

Bee,  free,  glee,  knee,  see,  three,  thee,  tree,  agree, 
decree,  degree,  disagree,  flee,  foresee,  o'ersee,  pedi- 
gree, he,  me,  we,  she,  be,  jubilee,  lee,  ne,  sea,  plea, 
flea,  tea,  key,  cap-i-pie,  gree,  dree,  calipee. 

EECE. 
See  Ease. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  149 

EECH. 
See  Each. 

EED. 

Creed,  deed,  indeed,  bleed,  breed,  feed,  heed,  meed, 
need,  reed,  speed,  seed,  steed,  weed,  proceed,  succeed, 
exceed,  knead,  read,  intercede,  precede,  recede,  con- 
cede, impede,  supersede,  glede,  rede,  bead,  lead,  mead, 
read,  plead,  etc. 

EEF. 


See  lEF. 

See  Eak. 

EEK. 

See  Eal. 

EEL. 

See  Eam. 

EEM. 

See  Ean. 

EEN, 

EEP. 

Creep,  deep,  sleep,  keep,  peep,  sheep,  steep,  sweep, 
weep,  asleep,  cheap,  heap,  neap. 

EER. 

As  in  beer.  Beer,  deer,  fleer,  geer,  jeer,  peer, 
mere,  leer,  sheer,  steer,  sneer,  cheer,  veer,  pickeer, 
domineer,  cannoneer,  compeer,  engineer,  mutineer, 
pioneer,  privateer,  charioteer,  chanticleer,  career, 
mountaineer,  fere,  here,  sphere,  adhere,  cohere,  in- 
terfere,   persevere,    revere,    austere,    severe,    sincere. 


150 


THE   RHYMESTER. 


hemisphere,  etc.  ;  ear,  clear,  dear,  fear,  near,  sear, 
hear,  pier,  bier,  tier,  smear,  spear,  tear,  rear,  year, 
appear,  besmear,  bandolier,  disappear,  endear,  auc- 
tioneer. 

As  in  eer.     See  Are. 


EESE. 

See  Eeze. 

EET. 

See  Eat. 

EETH. 

See  Eath. 

EETHE 

See  Eathe. 

EEVE. 

See  Eave. 

EEVES. 

fieaves   rhymes  plural  of   nouns  and  third  person 
sin^lar  present  of  verbs  in  Eeve,  Ieve,  etc. 

EEZE. 
Breeze,  freeze,  wheeze,  sneeze,  squeeze,  and  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  present 
tense  of  verbs  in  Ee,  cheese,  leese,  these,  ease,  ap- 
pease, disease,  displease,  tease,  seize,  and  the  plurals 
of  nouns  in  Ea,  Ee,  etc. 


EF. 
Clef,  nef,  semibref,  kef,  deaf. 


L'ICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  151 

EFT. 
Cleft,  left,  theft,  weft,  bereft. 

EG  and  EGG. 
^SS'  leg,  beg,  peg,  Meg,  keg,  Winnepeg, 


EGM. 

See  Em. 

EGN. 

Thegn.     See  AiN. 

EH. 

Eh  ?     See  Ay. 

EIGH. 

See  Ay. 

EIGHT. 

See  Ate  and  Ite. 

EIGN. 

See  AiN. 

EIL. 

See  Eel  and  Ail. 

EIN. 

See  Am. 

EINT. 

See  AiNT. 

EIR. 

See  Are. 

EIRD. 

Weird.     See  Eare 

). 

152 

THE  RHYMESTER. 

EIT. 

See  Eat. 

EIVE. 

See  Eave. 

EIZE. 

See  Eeze. 

EKE. 

See  Eak. 

EL,  and  ELL. 

Ell,  dwell,  fell,  hell,  knell,  quell,  sell,  bell,  cell,  mell, 
dispel,  foretell,  excel,  compel,  befell,  yell,  well,  tell, 
swell,  spell,  smell,  shell,  parallel,  sentinel,  infidel,  cita- 
del, refel,  repel,  rebel,  impel,  expel,  asphodel,  petronel, 
calomel,  muscatel. 

ELD. 

Held,  geld,  withheld,  upheld,  beheld,  eld,  etc.,  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  El,  Ell. 

ELF. 
Elf,  delf,  pelf,  self,  shelf,  himself,  Guelf,  Guelph. 

ELK. 

Elk,  kelk,  whelk. 

ELM. 
Elm,  helm,  realm,  whelm,  overwhelm. 

ELP. 

Help,  whelp,  kelp,  yelp. 


4 

DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  153 

ELT. 
Belt,  gelt,  melt,  felt,  welt,  smelt,  pelt,  dwelt,  dealt. 

ELVE. 
Delve,  helve,  shelve,  twelve. 

ELVES. 
Elves,  themselves,  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third 
persons  singular  of  verbs  in  Elve. 

EM. 
Gem,  hem,  stem,  them,  diadem,  stratagem,  anadem, 
kemb,   phlegm,   condemn,   contemn,   parapegm,  apo- 
thegm. 

EME. 
See  Eam. 

EMN. 
See  Em. 

EMPT. 
Tempt,  exempt,  attempt,  contempt,  dreamt. 

EN. 
Den,  hen,  fen,  ken,  men,  pen,  ten,  then,  when,  wren, 
denizen.     Hyen  rhymes  Een. 

ENCE. 

Fence,  hence,  pence,  thence,  whence,  defence,  ex- 
pense, offence,  pretence,  commence,  abstinence,  circum- 
ference, conference,  confidence,  consequence,  continence, 


154 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


benevolence,  concupiscence,  difference,  diffidence,  dili- 
gence, eloquence,  eminence,  evidence,  excellence,  im- 
penitence, impertinence,  impotence,  impudence,  im- 
providence, incontinence,  indifference,  indigence,  indo- 
lence, inference,  intelligence,  innocence,  magnificence, 
munificence,  negligence,  omnipotence,  penitence,  pref- 
erence, providence,  recompense,  reference,  residence, 
reverence,  vehemence,  violence,  sense,  dense,  cense, 
condense,  immense,  intense,  prepense,  dispense,  sus- 
pense, prepense,  incense,  frankincense. 

ENCH. 

Bench,  drench,  retrench,  quench,  clench,  stench, 
tench,  trench,  wench,  wrench,  intrench,  blench. 

END. 

Bend,  mend,  blend,  end,  fend,  lend,  rend,  send, 
spend,  tend,  vend,  amend,  attend,  ascend,  commend, 
contend,  defend,  depend,  descend,  distend,  expend, 
extend,  forefend,  impend,  misspend,  obtend,  offend, 
portend,  pretend,  protend,  suspend,  transcend,  unbend, 
apprehend,  comprehend,  condescend,  discommend,  rec- 
ommend, reprehend,  dividend,  reverend,  friend,  be- 
friend, and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in 
En,  etc. 

ENDS. 

Amends,  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons 
singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in  End. 

ENE. 
See  Ean. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  155 

ENGE. 
Avenge,  revenge,  no  rhyme. 

ENGTH. 

Length,  strength. 

ENS. 

Lens,  plural   of   nouns  and   third  person  singular 
■present  of  verbs  in  En. 

ENT. 

Bent,  lent,  rent,  pent,  scent,  sent,  shent,  spent,  tent, 
vent,  went,  blent,  cement,  brent,  hent,  absent,  meant, 
ascent,  assent,  attent,  augment,  cement,  content,  con- 
sent, descent,  dissent,  event,  extent,  foment,  frequent, 
indent,  intent,  invent,  lament,  misspent,  o'erspent,  pre- 
sent, prevent,  relent,  repent,  resent,  ostent,  ferment, 
outwent,  under\vent,  discontent,  unbent,  circumvent, 
represent,  abstinent,  accident,  accomplishment,  admon- 
ishment, acknowledgment,  aliment,  arbitrament,  argu- 
ment, banishment,  battlement,  blandishment,  astonish- 
ment, armipotent,  bellipotent,  benevolent,  chastisement, 
competent,  complement,  compliment,  confident,  conti- 
nent, corpulent,  detriment,  different,  diligent,  disparage- 
ment, document,  element,  eloquent,  eminent,  equivalent, 
establishment,  evident,  excellent,  excrement,  exigent, 
experiment,  firmament,  fraudulent,  government,  embel- 
lishment, imminent,  impenitent,  impertinent,  implement, 
impotent,  imprisonment,  improvident,  impudent,  inci- 
dent,   incompetent,    incontinent,    indifferent,    indigent. 


156  •  THE  RHYMESTER. 

innocent,  insolent,  instrument,  irreverent,  languishment, 
ligament,  lineament,  magnificent,  management,  medica- 
ment, malecontent,  monument,  negligent,  nourishment, 
nutriment,  Occident,  omnipotent,  opulent,  ornament, 
parliament,  penitent,  permanent,  pertinent,  president, 
precedent,  prevalent,  provident,  punishment,  ravish- 
ment, regiment,  resident,  redolent,  rudiment,  sacra- 
ment, sediment,  sentiment,  settlement,  subsequent, 
supplement,  intelligent,  tenement,  temperament,  testa- 
ment, tournament,  turbulent,  vehement,  violent,  viru- 
lent, reverent. 

ENTS. 
Accoutrements,  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  per- 
sons singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in  Ent. 

EP. 

Step,  nep,  skep,  rep,  demirep. 

EPT. 
Accept,  adept,  except,  intercept,  crept,  sept,  slept, 
wept,  kept. 

ER,  and  ERR. 
Her,  sir,  fir,  burr,  cur,  err,  aver,  defer,  infer,  deter, 
inter,  refer,  transfer,  confer,  prefer,  whirr,  administer, 
wagoner,  islander,  arbiter,  character,  villager,  cottager, 
dowager,  forager,  pillager,  voyager,  massacre,  gardener, 
slanderer,  flatterer,  idolater,  provender,  theatre,  amphi- 
theatre, foreigner,  lavender,  messenger,  passenger,  sor- 
cerer, interpreter,  officer,  mariner,  harbinger,  minister, 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  157 

register,  canister,  chorister,  sophister,  presbyter,  law- 
giver, philosopher,  astrologer,  loiterer,  prisoner,  grass- 
hopper, astronomer,  sepulchre,  thunderer,  traveler, 
murderer,  usurer,  myrrh,  purr,  stir,  slur,  fur,  bur,  spur, 
concur,  demur,  incur,  skirr. 


See  Earch.  ' 

ERCH. 

See  Erse. 

ERCE. 

See  Erse. 

lERCE. 

See  Eard. 

ERD. 

See  Eer. 

ERE. 

ERF. 

Serf,  turf,  surf,  scurf. 

ERGE. 

Verge,   absterge,   emerge,    immerge,    dirge,   urge, 

purge,  surge. 

ERGUE. 
Exergue,  burgh. 

ERM. 
Term,  firm,  worm,  afifirm,  confirm    infirm,  chirm, 
turm. 

ERN. 

Fern,    stern,    discern,    hern,   concern,    learn,    earn, 
yearn,  quern,  dern,  burn,  eterne,  turn. 


158  THE  RHYMESTER, 

ERNE. 
Eterne.     See  Ern. 

ERP. 
Discerp.     See  Irp. 

ERSE. 
Verse,  absterse,  adverse,  averse,  converse,  terse, 
disperse,  immerse,  perverse,  reverse,  asperse,  inter- 
sperse, universe,  amerce,  coerce,  hearse,  purse,  curse, 
nurse,  etc.,  accurse,  disburse,  imburse,  reimburse, 
worse. 

ERT. 

Wert,  advert,  assert,  avert,  concert,  convert,  con- 
trovert, desert,  divert,  exert,  expert,  insert,  invert,  per- 
vert, subvert,  shirt,  dirt,  sqirt,  flirt,  blurt,  hurt,  spurt. 

ERTH. 
Berth,   birth,    mirth,    earth,  worth,    dearth,    girth, 
perth. 

ERVE. 
Serve,  nerve,  swerve,  preserve,  deserve,  conserve, 
observe,  reserve,  disserve,  subserve,  curve. 

ES,  ESS,  or  ESSE. 
Yes,  bless,  dress,  cess,  chess,  guess,  less,  mess, 
press,  stress,  acquiesce,  access,  address,  assess,  com- 
press, confess,  caress,  depress,  digress,  dispossess,  dis- 
tress, excess,  express,  impress,  oppress,  possess,  profess, 
recess,  repress,  redress,  success,  transgress,  adultress. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  159 

bashfulness,  bitterness,  cheerfulness,  comfortless,  come- 
liness, dizziness,  diocess,  drowsiness,  eagerness,  easi- 
ness, ambassadress,  emptiness,  evenness,  fatherless, 
filthiness,  foolishness,  forgetfulness,  forwardness,  fro- 
wardness,  fruitfulness,  fulsomeness,  giddiness,  greedi- 
ness, gentleness,  governess,  happiness,  haughtiness, 
heaviness,  idleness,  heinousness,  hoariness,  hollowness, 
holiness,  lasciviousness,  lawfulness,  laziness,  littleness, 
liveliness,  loftiness,  lioness,  lowliness,  manliness,  mas- 
terless,  mightiness,  motherless,  motionless,  nakedness, 
neediness,  noisomeness,  numberless,  patroness,  peev- 
ishness, perfidiousness,  pitiless,  poetess,  prophetess, 
ransomless,  readiness,  righteousness,  shepherdess,  sor- 
ceress, sordidness,  spiritless,  sprightliness,  stubbornness, 
sturdiness,  surliness,  steadiness,  tenderness,  thought- 
fulness,  ugliness,  uneasiness,  unhappiness,  votaress, 
usefulness,  wakefulness,  wantonness,  weaponless,  wari-' 
ness,  willingness,  willfulness,  weariness,  wickedness, 
wilderness,  wretchedness,  drunkenness,  childishness, 
duresse,  cesse.     -*^'^'- 

ESE. 
See  Eeze. 

ESH. 
Flesh,  fresh,  refresh,  thresh,  afresh,  nesh,  mesh. 

ESK,  and  ESQUE. 

Desk,  grotesque,  burlesque,  arabesque,  picturesque, 
moresque. 


l6o  THE  RHYMESTER. 

EST. 

Best,  chest,  crest,  guest,  jest,  nest,  pest,  quest,  rest, 
test,  vest,  lest,  west,  arrest,  attest,  bequest,  contest, 
detest,  digest,  divest,  invest,  palimpsest,  alcahest,  in- 
fest, molest,  obtest,  protest,  request,  suggest,  unrest, 
interest,  manifest,  breast,  abreast,  and  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ess. 

ET,  and  ETTE. 
Bet,  get,  jet,  fret,  let,  met,  net,  set,  wet,  whet,  yet, 
debt,  abet,  beget,  beset,  forget,  regret,  alphabet,  amu- 
let, anchoret,  cabinet,  epithet,  parapet,  rivulet,  violet, 
coronet,  parroquet,  basinet,  wagonette,  cadet,  epau- 
lette, piquette,  sweat,  threat,  rosette,  silhouette. 

ETCH. 
Fetch,  stretch,  wretch,  sketch. 


See  Eat. 

See  Eath. 
See  Eave. 
See  Use. 
See  Ude. 
See  Ume. 


ETE. 

ETH. 
EVE. 
EUCE. 
EUD. 
EUM. 


EUR. 
Amateur,  connoisseur,  bon-viveur. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  i6i 

EW. 
Blew,  chew,  dew,  brew,  drew,  flew,  few,  grew,  new, 
coo,  woo,  shoe,  too,  who,  do,  blue,  stew,  knew,  hew, 
Jew,  mew,  view,  threw,  yew,  crew,  slew,  anew,  askew, 
bedew,  eschew,  renew,  review,  withdrew,  screw,  inter- 
view, emmew,  clue,  due,  cue,  glue,  hue,  rue,  sue, 
true,  accrue,  ensue,  endue,  imbue,  imbrue,  pursue,  sub- 
due, adieu,  purlieu,  perdue,  residue,  ormolu,  avenue, 
revenue,  retinue,  through,  pooh,  you.  (News  takes 
plural  of  nouns  and  third  person  singular  present  of 
verbs  of  this  class.) 

EWD. 
See  Ude. 

EWN. 
See  Une. 

EX. 
Sex,  vex,  annex,  convex,  complex,  perplex,  circum- 
flex, and  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  sin- 
gular of  verbs  in  Ec,  ECK. 

EXT. 

Next,  pretext,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of 
verbs  in  Ex. 

EY. 

As  in  prey.     See  Ay. 
As  in  key.     See  Ee. 

EYNE. 
Eyne  rhymes  Ine. 


162  THE  RHYMESTER. 

I 

I. 

See  lE. 

IB. 
Bib,  crib,  squib,  drib,  glib,  nib,  rib. 

IBE. 

Bribe,  tribe,  kibe,  scribe,  ascribe,  describe,  super- 
scribe, prescribe,  proscribe,  subscribe,  transcribe,  in- 
scribe, imbibe,  diatribe. 

IC. 

See  ICK. 

ICE. 
Ice,  dice,  mice,  nice,  price,  rice,  spice,  slice,  thrice, 
trice,  splice,  advice,  entice,  vice,  device,  concise,  pre- 
cise, paradise,  sacrifice. 

ICHE  and  ICH. 
See  Itch. 

ICK. 

Brick,  sick,  chick,  kick,  lick,  nick,  pick,  quick,  stick, 
thick,  trick,  arithmetic,  choleric,  catholic,  heretic,  rhet- 
oric, splenetic,  lunatic,  politic. 

ICT. 
Strict,    addict,    afflict,    convict,    inflict,    contradict, 
Pict,     The  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  ICK. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  163 

ID. 
Bid,  chid,  hid,  kid,  lid,  slid,  rid,  bestrid,  pyramid, 
forbid,  quid,  squid,  katydid. 

IDE. 

Bide,  chide,  hide,  gride,  glide,  pride,  ride,  slide, 
side,  nide,  stride,  tide,  wide,  bride,  abide,  guide,  aside, 
astride,  beside,  bestride,  betide,  confide,  decide,  de- 
ride, divide,  preside,  provide,  subside,  misguide,  subdi- 
vide, the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  lE,  IGH, 
and  Y. 

IDES. 
Ides,  besides,  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  per- 
sons singular  of  verbs  in  IDE. 

IDGE. 
Bridge,  ridge,  midge,  fidge,  abridge. 

IDST. 

Midst,  amidst,  didst,  the  second  persons  singular 
of  the  present  tense  of  verbs  in  Id. 

IE,  or  Y. 

By,  buy,  cry,  die,  dry,  eye,  fly,  fry,  fie,  hie,  lie,  pie, 
alibi,  alkali,  ply,  pry,  rye,  shy,  sly,  spy,  sky,  sty,  tie, 
try,  vie,  why,  ally,  apply,  awry,  bely,  comply,  decry, 
defy,  descry,  deny,  imply,  espy,  outvie,  outfly,  rely, 
reply,  supply,  untie,  amplify,  beautify,  certify,  crucify, 
deify,  dignify,  edify,  falsify,  fortify,  gratify,  glorify,  in- 
II 


164  THE  RHYMESTER. 

demnify,  justify,  magnify,  modify,  mollify,  mortify, 
pacify,  petrify,  purify,  putrify,  qualify,  ratify,  rectify, 
sanctify,  satisfy,  scarify,  signify,  specify,  stupefy,  ter- 
rify, testify,  verify,  vilify,  vitrify,  vivify,  prophesy,  high, 
nigh,  sigh,  thigh.  Such  w^ords  as  lunacy,  polygamy, 
tyranny,  can  not  well  be  used,  as  it  is  difficult  to  get 
the  y  sound  without  ov^er-accentuating  it. 

lECE. 
See  Ease. 

lED. 

Pied,  side,  sighed,  rhymes  with  preterites  and  par- 
ticiples of  verbs  in  Y  or  lE. 

lEF. 

Grief,  chief,  fief,  thief,  brief,  belief,  relief,  reef,  beef, 
leaf,  sheaf. 

lEGE. 
Liege,  siege,  assiege,  besiege. 

lELD. 

Field,  yield,  shield,   wield,  afield,  weald,  and  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Eal. 

lEN. 
See  Een. 

lEND. 

As  in  fiend.     Rhymes  preterites  and  participles  of 
verbs  in  Ean,  Een. 

As  in  friend.     Rhymes  End. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  165 

lER. 
See  Eer. 

lERCE. 
Fierce,  pierce,  tierce. 

lEST. 
Priest   rhymes  East.      Dicst,  second  person  sin- 
gular present,  at  times  pronounced  as  a  monosyllable, 
rhymes  spiced,  etc. 


I  EVE 

As  in  sieve. 

See  IVE. 

As  in  grieve. 

See  Eave. 

lEU. 

See  Ew. 

lEZE. 

Frieze.     See 

Eeze. 

IF,   IFF. 
If,  skiff,  stiff,  whiff,  cliff,  sniff,  tiff,  hieroglyph. 

IFE. 

Rife,  fife,  knife,  wife,  strife,  life. 

IFT. 

Gift,  drift,  shift,  lift,  rift,  sift,  thrift,  adrift,  and  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Iff. 


l66  THE  RHYMESTER. 

IG. 

Big,  dig,  gig,  fig,  pig,  rig,  sprig,  twig,  swig,  grig. 
Whig,  wig,  jig,  prig. 


Oblige,  no 

rhyme. 

IGE. 

See  IE. 

IGH. 

See  ITE, 

IGHT. 

See  Ime. 

IGM. 

See  INE, 

IGN. 

See  Eague. 

IGUE. 

IKE. 
Dike,  like,  pike,  spike,  strike,  alike,  dislike,  shrike, 
glike. 

IL,  ILL. 

Bill,  chill,  fill,  drill,  gill,  hill,  ill,  kill,  mill,  pill,  quill, 
rill,  shrill,  fill,  skill,  spill,  still,  swill,  thrill,  till,  trill, 
will,  distill,  fulfill,  instill,  codicil,  daffodil. 

ILCH. 

Filch,  milch. 

ILD. 

As  in  child.  Rhymes  mild,  wild,  guild,  etc.,  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  of  one  syllable  in 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  167 

ILE,  or  of  more  syllables,  provided  the  accent  be  on 
the  last. 

As  in  gild.  Rhymes  build,  rebuild,  etc.,  and  the 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  III. 

ILE. 

Bile,  chyle,  file,  guile,  isle,  mile,  pile,  smile,  stile, 
style,  tile,  vile,  while,  awhile,  compile,  revile,  defile, 
exile,  erewhile,  reconcile,  beguile,  aisle.  (There  is  also 
the  eel  sound,  as  in  imported  words  like  bastile,  pas- 
tile,  rhyming  with  Eal.) 

ILGE. 
Bilge,  no  rhyme. 

ILK. 
Milk,  silk,  bilk,  whilk. 

ILN. 
Kiln,  no  rhyme. 

ILT. 
Gilt,  jilt,  built,  quilt,  hilt,  guilt,  spilt,  stilt,  tilt,  milt. 

ILTH. 
Filth,  tilth,  spilth. 

IM. 

Brim,  dim,  grim,  him,  rim,  skim,  slim,  trim,  whim, 
prim,  limb,  hymn,  limn. 


l68  THE  RHYMESTER. 

1MB. 
As  in  limb.     See  Im. 

As  in  clhnb.     See  Ime. 

IME. 
Chime,   time,   grime,    climb,    clime,    crime,    prime, 
mime,  rhyme,  slime,  thyme,  lime,  sublime,  paradigm. 

IMES. 

Betimes,  sometimes.  Rhymes  the  plurals  of  nouns 
and  third  persons  singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in 
Ime. 

IMN. 

See  IM. 

IMP. 
Imp,  limp,  pimp,  gimp,  jimp. 

IMPSE. 

Glimpse.  Rhymes  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third 
persons  singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in  Imp. 

IN,  INN. 
Bin,  chin,  din,  fin,  gin,  grin,  in,  inn,  kin,  pin,  shin, 
sin,  spin,  skin,  linn,  thin,  twin,  tin,  win,  within,  javelin, 
begin,  whin,  baldachin,  cannikin,  discipline. 

INC. 
See  Ink. 

INCE. 

Mince,  prince,  since,  quince,  rinse,  wince,  convince, 
evince. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  169 

INCH. 
Clinch,  finch,  winch,  pinch,  inch. 

INCT. 

Instinct,  distinct,  extinct,  precinct,  succinct,  tinct, 
etc.,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  certain  verbs 
in  Ink,  as  linked,  pinked,  etc. 

IND. 

As  in  bind.  Find,  mind,  blind,  kind,  grind,  rind, 
wind,  behind,  unkind,  remind,  etc.,  and  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ine,  Ign,  etc. 

As  in  rescind.  Preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in 
In. 

INE. 

As  in  dine.  Brine,  mine,  chine,  fine,  line,  nine,  pine, 
shine,  shrine,  kine,  thine,  trine,  twine,  vine,  wine,  whine, 
combine,  confine,  decline,  define,  incHne,  enshrine,  en- 
twine, opine,  recline,  refine,  repine,  superfine,  interline, 
countermine,  undermine,  supine,  concubine,  porcupine, 
Rhine,  divine,  sign,  assign,  consign,  design,  eyne,  con- 
dign, indign. 

As  in  discipline.     See  In. 

ING. 
Bring,  sing,  cling,  fling,  king,  ring,  sling,  spring, 
sting,  string,  ging,  swing,  wing,  wring,  thing,  etc.,  and 
the  participles  of  the  present  tense  in   iNG,  with  the 
accent  on  the  antepenultimate,  as  recovering. 


lyo  THE  RHYMESTER. 

INGE. 

Cringe,  fringe,  hinge,  singe,  springe,  swinge,  tinge, 
twinge,  infringe. 

INK  and  INQUE. 
Ink,  think,  wink,  drink,  blink,  brink,  chink,  clink, 
link,  pink,  shrink,  sink,  slink,  stink,  bethink,  forethink, 
skink,  swink,  zinc,  cinque,  appropinque. 

INSE. 
Rinse.     See  Ince. 

INT. 

Dint,  mint,  hint,  flint,  lint,  print,  squint,  asquint, 
imprint,  sprint,  quint. 

INTH. 

Plinth,  hyacinth,  labyrinth. 

INX. 

Minx,  sphinx,  methinks,  jinks,  plural  of  nouns  and 
third  person  singular  present  of  verb  in  Ink. 

IP. 

Chip,  lip,  hip,  clip,  dip,  drip,  lip,  nip,  sip,  rip,  scrip, 
ship,  skip,  slip,  snip,  strip,  tip,  trip,  whip,  equip,  elder- 
ship, fellowship,  workmanship,  rivalship,  and  all  words 
in  Ship  with  the  accent  on  the  antepenultimate. 

IPE. 
Gripe,  pipe,  ripe,  snipe,  type,  stripe,  wipe,  archetype, 
prototype. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  171 

IPSE. 

Eclipse.     Rhymes  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third 
persons  singular  present  tense  in  I  P. 


See  Eak. 

IQUE. 

See  Ur. 

IR. 

See  Urch. 

IRCH. 

See  Urd. 

IRD. 

IRE. 

Fire,  dire,  hire,  ire,  lyre,  mire,  quire,  sire,  spire, 
squire,  wire,  tire,  attire,  acquire,  admire,  aspire,  con- 
spire, desire,  inquire,  entire,  expire,  inspire,  require, 
retire,  transpire,  pyre,  gipsire,  gire. 

IRGE. 
See  Erge. 

IRK. 
Dirk,  firk,   kirk,  stirk,    quirk,    shirk,   work,   burke, 
murk. 

IRL. 

See  Earl. 

IRM. 
See  Erm. 

IRR. 
See  Er. 


172  THE  RHYMESTER. 

IRP. 

See  Urp. 

IRST. 
See  Urst 

IRT. 
See  Urt. 

IRTH. 
See  Erth. 

IS. 

Pronounced  like  is.     Is,  his,  whiz. 

ISS. 
Bliss,  miss,  hiss,  kiss,  this,  abyss,  amiss,  submiss, 
dismiss,  remiss,  wis,  Dis,  spiss. 

ISC. 
Disc,  whisk,  risk.     See  ISK. 

ISE. 
See  Ice  and  IZE. 

ISH. 
Dish,  fish,  wish,  cuish,  pish,  squish. 

ISK. 
Brisk,  frisk,  disc,  risk,  whisk,  basilisk,  tamarisk. 

ISM. 

Chrism,  solecism,  anachronism,  abysm,  schism,  syl- 
logism, witticism,  criticism,  organism,  heroism,  prism, 
egotism,  cataclysm. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  173 

ISP. 
Crisp,  wisp,  lisp. 

1ST. 

Fist,  list,  mist,  twist,  wrist,  assist,  consist,  desist, 

exist,  insist,  persist,  resist,  subsist,  alchemist,  amethyst, 

anatomist,  antagonist,  annalist,    evangelist,   eucharist, 

exorcist,  herbalist,  humorist,  oculist,  organist,  satirist, 

etc.,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Iss, 

etc. 

IT. 

Bit,  Cit,  hit,  fit,  grit,  flit,  knit,  pit,  quit,  sit,  split, 
twit,  wit,  chit,  whit,  writ,  admit,  acquit,  commit,  emit, 
omit,    outwit,    permit,    remit,    submit,    transmit,    refit, 

benefit,  perquisite. 

ITCH. 

Ditch,  pitch,  rich,  which,  flitch,  itch,  stitch,  switch, 
twitch,  witch,  bewitch,  niche,  enrich,  fitch. 

ITE,  and  IGHT. 

Bite,  cite,  kite,  blite,  mite,  quite,  rite,  smite,  spite, 
trite,  white,  write,  contrite,  disunite,  despite,  indite,  ex- 
cite, incite,  invite,  polite,  requite,  recite,  unite,  reunite, 
aconite,  appetite,  parasite,  proselyte,  expedite,  blight, 
benight,  bright,  fight,  flight,  fright,  height,  light,  knight, 
night,  might,  wight,  plight,  right,  tight,  slight,  sight, 
spright,  wight,  affright,  alight,  aright,  foresight,  delight, 
despite,  unsight,  upright,  benight,  bedight,^  oversight, 
height,  accite,  pight.    •'?? /  av-  X"^^      5  J^'U^ 

ITH. 

Pith,  smith,  frith,  sith.  {With  has  strictly  no 
rhyme.) 


174  ^^^  RHYMESTER. 

ITHE. 
Hithe,  blithe,  tithe,  scythe,  writhe,  lithe. 

ITS. 

Quits  rhymes  plural  of  nouns  and  third  person 
singular  present  of  verbs  in  It. 

IVE. 

As  in  five.  Rhymes  dive,  alive,  gyve,  hive,  drive, 
rive,  shrive,  strive,  thrive,  arrive,  connive,  contrive,  de- 
prive, derive,  revive,  survive. 

As  in  give.  Rhymes  live,  sieve,  fugitive,  positive, 
sensitive,  etc. 

IX. 
Fix,  six,  mix,  nix,  affix,  infix,  prefix,  transfix,  inter- 
mix, crucifix,  etc.,  and  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third 
persons  singular  of  verbs  in  ICK. 

IXT. 

Betwixt.  Rhymes  the  preterites  and  participles  of 
verbs  in  Ix. 

ISE,  and  IZE. 

Prize,  wise,  rise,  size,  guise,  disguise,  advise,  author- 
ise, canonise,  agonise,  chastise,  civilise,  comprise,  criti- 
cise, despise,  devise,  enterprise,  excise,  exercise,  idolise, 
immortalise,  premise,  revise,  signalise,  solemnise,  sur- 
prise, surmise,  suffice,  sacrifice,  symj)athise,  tyrannise, 
and  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular 
present  tense  of  verbs  in  Ie  or  Y. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


75 


O  '^ 

O. 

Mo',  calico,  bo,  portico,  go,  ago,  undergo,  ho,  though, 
woe,  adagio,  seraglio,  owe,  beau,  crow,  lo,  no,  fro',  so, 
snow,  show,  slow,  overthrow,  overflow,  foreshow,  out- 
grow, dough,  foreknow,  forego,  undergo,  below,  bestow, 
tho',  hoe,  ho,  ago,  strow,  slow,  mistletoe,  sloe,  toe,  Co, 
foe,  doe,  roe,  oh,  stow,  bow,  flow,  glow,  grow,  know, 
low,  mow,  sew. 

OACH. 

Broach,  coach,  poach,  abroach,  approach,  encroach, 
reproach, loach. 


See  Ode. 

OAD. 

Oaf,  loaf. 

OAF. 

See  Oke. 

OAK. 

See  OLE. 

OAL. 

See  Ome. 

OAM. 

See  One. 

OAN. 

See  Ope. 

OAP. 

176 

THE 

RHYMESTER. 

See  Ore. 

OAR. 

See  Ord. 

OARD, 

See  OST. 

OAST. 

See  Ote. 

OAT. 

See  0th. 

OATH. 
OAVES. 

Loaves,  groves, 

roves,  cloves,  etc. 

OAX. 

Hoax,  coax,  rhyme  plural  of  nouns  and  third  per- 
son singular  present  of  verbs  in  Oke. 

OB. 

Cob,  fob,  bob,  lob,  hob,  nob,  mob.  knob.  sob.  rob, 
throb,  cabob,  swab,  squab. 

OBE. 

Globe,  lobe,  probe,  robe,  conglobe. 

OCE. 
See  OSE. 

OCH.  • 

See  OcK. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  177 

OCHE. 
Caroche,  gauche. 

OCK. 

Block,  lock,  cock,  clock,  crock,  dock,  frock,  flock, 
knock,  mock,  rock,  shock,  stock,  sock,  brock,  hough, 
loch,  epoch. 

OCT. 

Concoct  rhymes  the  preterites  and  participles  of 
verbs  in  OCK. 

OD. 

Cod,  clod,  God,  rod,  sod,  trod,  nod,  plod,  odd,  shod, 
quod,  pod,  wad,  quad,  odd,  hod,  tod. 

ODE. 
Bode,  ode,  code,  mode,  rode,  abode,  corrode,  ex- 
plode, forebode,  commode,  incommode,  episode,  a-la- 
mode,  road,  toad,  goad,  load,  etc.,  and  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ow,  Owe. 

ODGE. 
Dodge,  lodge,  Hodge,  podge,  bodge. 

OE. 
As  in  shoe.     See  Oo. 
As  in  toe.     See  O. 

♦  OFF. 

Doff,  off,  scoff,  cough. 


178  THE  RHYMESTER. 

OFT. 

Oft,  croft,  soft,  aloft,  and  the  preterites  and  par- 
ticiples of  verbs  in  OFF. 

OG. 

Hog,  bog,  cog,  dog,  clog,  fog,  frog,  log,  jog,  agog, 
Gog,  prog,  quog,  shog,  tog,  pollywog,  dialogue,  epi- 
logue, synagogue,  catalogue,  pedagogue,  Quogue. 

OGE. 

Gamboge,  rouge. 

OGUE. 

As  in  rogue.  Rhymes  vogue,  prorogue,  collogue, 
disembogue. 

As  in  catalogue.     See  Og. 

OH. 
See  O. 

OICE. 

Choice,  voice,  rejoice. 

OID. 

Void,  avoid,  devoid,  asteroid,  alkaloid,  varioloid,  and 
the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Oy. 

OIF. 

Coif,  no  rhyme. 

OIGN. 
See  OiN. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 


179 


OIL. 

Oil,  boil,  coil,  moil,  soil,  spoil,  toil,  despoil,  embroil, 
recoil,  turmoil,  disembroil. 

OIN. 

Coin,  join,  subjoin,  groin,  loin,  adjoin,  conjoin,  dis- 
join, enjoin,  foin,  proin,  purloin,  rejoin,  coign. 

OINT. 

Oint,  joint,  point,  disjoint,  anoint,  appoint,  aroint, 
disappoint,  counterpoint. 

OIR. 

As  in  choir.  See  Ire,  but  the  foreign  sound,  as  in 
devoir,  reservoir,  is  nearer  Ar,  but  must  not  be  so 
rhymed.     Coir  is  a  dissyllable. 

OISE. 

Poise,  noise,  counterpoise,  equipoise,  etc.,  and  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  present 
tense  of  verbs  in  Oy. 

OIST. 

Hoist,  moist,  foist,  the  preterites  and  participles  of 
verbs  in  OlCE, 

OIT. 

Doit,  exploit,  adroit,  quoit,  etc. 
12 


i8o  THE  RHYMESTER. 

OKE. 
Broke,  choke,  smoke,  spoke,  stroke,  yoke,  bespoke, 
invoke,  provoke,  revoke,  cloak,  oak,  soak,  joke,  moke, 

coke,  equivoque. 

OL. 

Alcohol,  loll,  doll,  extol,  capitol,  Moll,  Poll. 

OLD. 

Old,  bold,  cold,  gold,  hold,  mold,  scold,  sold,  told, 
behold,  enfold,  unfold,  uphold,  withhold,  foretold, 
manifold,  marigold,  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs 
in  Oll,  Owl,  Ole,  and  Oal. 

OLE. 
Bole,  dole,  jole,  hole,  mole,  pole,  sole,  stole,  whole, 
shoal,  cajole,  girandole,  condole,  parole,  patrole,  pis- 
tole, console,  aureole,  vole,  coal,  foal,  goal,  bowl,  roll, 
scroll,  toll,  troll,  droll,  poll,  control,  enrol,  soul. 

OLL. 

As  in  loll.     Rhymes  Ol. 
As  in  droll.     See  OLE. 

OLN. 

Stol'n,  swoln. 

OLP. 
Holp,  golpe. 

OLT. 
Bolt,  colt,  jolt,  holt,  dolt,  revolt,  thunderbolt,  moult. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  i8i 

OLVE. 

Solve,  absolve,  resolve,  convolve,  involve,  devolve, 
dissolve,  revolve. 

CM. 
Tom,  from.     But  for  whom,  see  OOM. 

0MB. 

As  in  tomb.     See  OoM. 

As  in  co7nb.     See  Ome,  clomb. 

As  in  bomb.     See  Um.     Rhomb  has  no  rhyme. 

OME. 
Dome,  home,  mome,  foam,  roam,  loam. 

OMP. 
Pomp,  swamp,  romp. 

OMPT. 
Prompt,  preterite  and  participle  of  romp. 

ON. 

As  in  don.     Rhymes  on,  con,  upon,  anon,  shone. 
As  in  won.     See  Un. 

ONCE. 
As  in  sconce.     See  Onse. 
As  in  once.     See  Unce. 


l82  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ONCH. 
Conch,  jonque. 

OND. 

Pond,  bond,  fond,  beyond,  abscond,  correspond, 
blonde,  despond,  diamond,  vagabond,  and  the  preterites 
and  participles  of  verbs  in  On. 

ONE. 

As  in  bone.  Prone,  drone,  throne,  alone,  stone,  tone, 
lone,  zone,  atone,  enthrone,  dethrone,  postpone,  grown, 
fiovvn,  disown,  thrown,  sown,  own,  loan,  shown,  over- 
thrown, groan,  blown,  moan,  known,  cone,  loan. 

As  in  done.     See  UN. 

As  \x\.gone.     See  Awn.- 

As  in  shone.     See  On. 

ONG. 

As  in  long.     Prong,    song,  thong,  strong,  throng, 
wrong,  along,  belong,  prolong. 
As  in  among.     See  Ung. 

ONGE. 

See  Unge. 

ONGUE. 
See  Ung. 

ONK. 

As  in  fnonk.     See  Unk. 

As  in  conk.     Rhymes  jonque. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  183 

ONSE. 
Response,  sconce,  ensconce. 

ONT. 

As  mfofit.     Rhymes  want. 

As  in  front.  See  Unt.  (The  abbreviated  nega- 
tives, won't,  don't,  rhyme  together.) 

00. 

See  Ew. 

OOCH. 
See  Oach. 

OOD. 

As  in  brood.     See  Ude. 

As  in  wood,  ,  Rhymes  good,  hood,  stood,  withstood, 
understood,  could,  would,  brotherhood,  livelihood,  like- 
lihood, neighborhood,  widowhood.  l^ 

As  in  blood.     See  Ud. 

OOF. 
Hoof,  proof,  roof,  woof,  aloof,  disproof,  reproof,  be- 
hoof. 

OOH. 
See  Ew. 

r 

OOK. 
Book,  brook,  cook,  crook,  hook,  look,  rook,  shook, 
took,  mistook,  undertook,  forsook,  stook,  betook,  caout- 
chouc. 


184  THE   RHYMESTER. 

OOL. 

Cool,  fool,  pool,  school,  stool,  tool,  befool,  spool, 
buhl,  pule,  rule. 

OOM. 

Gloom,  groom,  loom,  room,  spoom,  bloom,  boom, 
doom,  tomb,  entomb,  whom,  womb,  plume,  spume, 
fume,  consume,  assume,  presume,  resume,  perfume, 
rheum. 

OON. 
See  Une. 

OOP. 
Loop,    poop,    scoop,    stoop,    troop,    droop,   whoop, 
coop,  hoop,  soup,  group,  dupe. 

OOR. 
As  in  boor.      Rhymes  poor,  moor,   tour,   amour, 
paramour,  contour,  pure,  sure,  your. 
As  in  door.     See  Ore. 

OOSE. 
See  Use. 

OOT. 

As  in  root.     See  Ute. 

As  in  foot.  Rhymes  put.  (It  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  soot  should  rhyme  root  or  but,  the  pronuncia- 
tion so  varies.) 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  185 

OOTH. 

As  in  booth.     Rhymes  smooth,  soothe. 

As  in  tooth.     Rhymes  youth,  uncouth,  truth. 

OOVE. 
See  OVE. 

OOZE. 
Ooze,  noose,   whose,  choose,  lose,  use,  abuse,  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular   present 
tense  of  verbs  in  Ew,  Ue. 

OP. 

Chop,  hop,  drop,  crop,  fop,  top,  pop,  prop,   flop, 
shop,  slop,  sop,  stop,  swop,  underprop. 

OPE. 
Hope,  cope,  mope,  grope,  pope,  rope,  scope,  slope, 
trope,   aslope,   elope,   interlope,    telescope,    heliotrope, 
horoscope,  antelope,  etc.,  and  ope,  contracted  in  poetry 
for  open. 

OPT. 
Adopt  rhymes  with  the  preterites  and  participles 
of  verbs  in  Op,  etc. 

OQUE. 
See  Oke. 

OR. 

Or,  for,  creditor,  counsellor,  competitor,  emperor, 
ancestor,   ambassador,    progenitor,    conspirator,    con- 


l86  THE  RHYMESTER. 

queror,  governor,  abhor,  metaphor,  bachelor,  senator, 
etc.,  and  every  word  in  Or  having  the  accent  on  the 
last,  or  last  syllable  but  two,  pour,  bore,  tore,  boar, 
hoar,  war,  corps,  tor. 

ORB. 
Orb,  sorb,  corb. 

ORCE. 
See  Orse. 

ORCH. 

Scorch,  torch,  porch. 

ORD  and  ORDE. 

As  in  cord.  Rhymes  lord,  record,  accord,  abhorr'd, 
hoard,  horde,  board,  aboard,  ford,  afford,  sword,  and 
the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Oar,  Ore. 

As  in  word.     See  Urd. 

ORE. 
Bore,  core,  gore,  lore,  more,  ore,  pore,  score,  shore, 
snore,  sore,  store,  swore,  tore,  wore,  adore,  afore, 
ashore,  deplore,  explore,  implore,  restore,  forebore, 
foreswore,  heretofore,  hellebore,  sycamore,  albicore, 
boar,  oar,  roar,  soar,  four,  door,  floor,  o'er,  orator,  sena- 
tor, abhor,  corps,  encore,  Bucentaur. 


r 

ORGE. 
George,  gorge,  disgorge,  regorge,  forge. 


uO    - 


y  J 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  187 

ORK. 
Ork,  cork,  fork,  stork,  pork,  York. 

ORLD. 

World,  rhymes  with  the  preterites  and  participles 
of  verbs  in  Url  and  IRL. 

ORM. 

As  inform.  Rhymes  storm,  conform,  deform,  in- 
form, perform,  reform,  misinform,  uniform,  multiform, 
warm,  swarm,  chloroforrh,  transform. 

As  in  worm.    See  Erj^i. 

ORN. 
Born,  corn,  morn,  horn,  scorn,  thorn,  adorn,  suborn, 
unicorn,  som,  Capricorn,  shorn,  torn,  worn,  lorn,  for- 
lorn, lovelorn,  sworn,  foresworn,  overborne,  foreborne, 
mourn,  warn,  forewarn. 

ORP. 
Thorp,  warp. 

ORPS. 
Corps  rhymes  ORE. 

ORPSE. 
Corpse  rhxTnes  plurals  of  nouns  and  preterites  and 
participles  of  verbs  in  Arp. 


i88  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ORSE. 

Horse,  endorse,  unhorse,    force,   remorse,   coarse, 
course,  torse,  morse,  corse. 


ORST. 
See  Urst. 

ORT. 

Short,  sort,  exhort,  consort,  distort,  extort,  resort, 
retort,  snort,  mort,  wart,  fort,  port,  court,  report,  morte, 
wart,  thwart,  quart,  swart.    ^It-onJc 

ORTS. 
Orts,  plural  of    nouns  and    third   person  singular 
present  of  verbs  in  Ort. 

ORTH. 

As  in  north.     Rhymes  fourth. 
As  in  worth.     See  Erth. 


OSE. 

As  in  jocose.  Rhymes  close,  dose,  morose,  gross, 
engross,  verbose. 

As  in  pose.  Rhymes  close,  dose,  hose,  chose,  glose, 
froze,  nose,  prose,  those,  rose,  compose,  depose,  dis- 
close, dispose,  discompose,  expose,  impose,  enclose, 
interpose7  oppose,  propose,  recompose,  repose,  sup- 
pose, transpose,  arose,    presuppose,    foreclose,    gloze. 


DICTIONARY   OF  RHYMES.  189 

etc.,  and  the  plurals  of  nouns  and  apostrophized  pre- 
terites and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ow,  Oe,  O. 
As  in  lose.     See  USE. 

OSH. 
Bosh,  wash,  swash. 

OSM. 
Microcosm,  no  rhyme. 

OSQUE,  OSK. 
Mosque,  kiosk. 

OSS. 

Boss,  cross,  dross,  moss,  loss,  across,  albatross, 
doss,  emboss. 

OST. 

As  in  cost.  Rhymes  frost,  lost,  accost,  holocaust, 
etc.,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  words  in  Oss. 

As  \Vi  ghost.  Rhymes  post,  most,  coast,  and  second 
person  singular  present  of  verbs  in  Ow,  as  ow'st. 

As  in  dost.     See  UST. 

OT. 

Clot,  cot,  blot,  got,  hot,  jot,  lot,  knot,  not,  plot,  pot, 
scot,  shot,  polyglot,  sot,  spot,  apricot,  trot,  rot,  g^ot, 
begot,  forgot,  allot,  complot,  yacht,  quat,  melilot,  coun- 
terplot, what. 


190 


THE  RHYMESTER. 


OTCH. 
Botch,  notch,  crotch,  blotch,  Scotch,  watch. 

OTE. 

Note,  vote,  Iota,  mote,  quote,  rote,  wrote,  smote, 
denote,  tote,  promote,  remote,  devote,  anecdote,  anti- 
dote, boat,  coat,  bloat,  doat,  float,  gloat,  goat,  oat,  over- 
float,  afloat,  throat,  moat. 

OTH. 

As  in  broth.     Rhymes  cloth,  froth,  troth,  wrath. 
As  in  both.    Rhymes  loth,  sloth,  oath,  growth,  both, 
loath. 

As  in  moth.     Rhymes  cloth. 

OTHE. 

Clothe,  loathe  (with  s  added  rhymes  oaths  ;  though 
clothes,  the  noun,  in  comic  verse  may  rhyme  with  snows, 
being  colloquially  spoken  do's). 

OU. 

As  in  thou.     See  Ow. 
As  myou.     See  Ew. 

OUBT. 
Doubt,  see  Out. 

OUC. 
See  OOK. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  191 

OUCH. 

As  in  couch.    Pouch,  vouch,  slouch,  avouch,  crouch. 
As  in  touch.     See  Utch. 

OUCHE. 
Cartouche,  buche. 

OUD. 

Shroud,  cloud,  loud,  proud,  aloud,  crowd,  o'er- 
shroud,  etc.,  and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs 
in  Ow. 

OUGH. 
Has  various  pronunciations.      See  Off,  Ow,  Owe, 
OCK,  O,  Ew,  and  Uff. 

OUGE. 

As  in  rouge.     Rhymes  gamboge. 

OUGHT. 

Bought,  thought,  ought,  brought,  forethought, 
fought,  nought,  sought,  wrought,  besought,  bethought, 
methought,  aught,  naught,  caught,  taught. 


OUL. 


As  \nfoul.     See  Owl. 
As  in  soul.    See  OLE. 


ig,2  THE  RHYMESTER. 

OULD. 

Mould,  fold,  old,  cold,  and  the  preterites  and  par- 
ticiples of  verbs  in  Owl,  Oll,  and  OLE. 

OULT. 
See  Olt. 


OUN. 


See  Own. 


OUNCE. 

Bounce,  flounce,  renounce,  pounce,  ounce,  de- 
nounce, pronounce. 

OUND. 

As  in  bound.  Rhymes  found,  mound,  ground, 
hound,  pound,  round,  sound,  wound  (verb),  abound, 
aground,  around,  confound,  compound,  expound,  pro- 
found, rebound,  resound,  propound,  surround,  etc.,  and 
the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Own. 

As  in  wound — the  noun.  Rhymes  preterites  and 
participles  of  verbs  in  OON,  Une. 

OUNG. 
See  Ung. 

OUNT. 

Count,  mount,  fount,  amount,  dismount,  remount, 

surmount,  account,  discount,  miscount,  account. 

OUP. 
See  OOP. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  193 

OUPH,  or  OUPHE. 
Ouphe,  or  ouph.     See  Oof. 

OUQUE. 
Chibouque.     See  Uke. 

OUR. 
As  in  hour.    Rhymes  lour,  sour,  our,  scour,  deflow'r, 
devour,  bow'r,  tow'r,  etc. 
As  in  pour.     See  Ore. 
As  in  tour.     See  Ure. 


See  Urge. 


OURGE. 


OURN. 


As  in  adjotirn.    See  Urn. 
As  in  mourn.     See  Orn. 

OURNE. 
Bourne,  rhymes  Orn. 

OURS. 

As  in  ours.  Rhymes  the  plurals  of  nouns  and 
third  persons  singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in  OUR 
and  Ow'r. 

As  in  yours.  Rhymes  the  plurals  of  nouns  and 
third  persons  singular  present  tense  of  verbs  in  Ure, 
OOR,  etc. 


194  ^^-^  RHYMESTER. 

OURSE. 
Course.    See  Orse. 


OURT. 
Court.     See  Ort. 


OURTH, 
Fourth.     See  Orth. 

OUS. 

Nous,  house,  mouse,  chouse,  douse. 

OUSE. 

As  in  house  (noun).     See  Ous. 
As  in  spouse.     See  OwzE. 

OUST. 
Joust,  Faust. 

OUT. 

Bout,  stout,  out,  clout,  pout,  gout,  grout,  rout,  scout, 
shout,  tout,  snout,  spout,  stout,  sprout,  trout,  about, 
devout,  without,  throughout,  doubt,  redoubt,  misdoubt, 
drought. 

OUTH. 
As  in  7nouth  (noun).     Rhymes  south,  drouth. 
As  in  youth.     See  Uth. 
As  in  mouth  (verb),  no  rhyme. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  195 

OVE. 
As  in  wove.      Rhymes   inwove,   interwove,   hove, 
alcove,  clove,  grove,  behove,  rove,  stove,  strove,  throve, 

drove. 

As  in  dove.     Rhymes  love,  shove,  glove,  above. 

As  in  move.  Rhymes  approve,  disprove,  disap- 
prove, improve,  groove,  prove,  reprove. 

OW. 

As  in  now.  Rhymes  bow,  how,  mow,  cow,  brow, 
sow,  vow,  prow,  avow,  allow,  trow,  disallow,  endow, 
bough,  plough,  slough  (mire),  thou. 

As  in  blow.     See  O. 

OWD. 
Crowd.     See  OuD. 

OWE. 
Owe.     See  Ow. 

OWL. 
As  in  co%ul.     Rhymes  growl,  owl,  fowl,  howl,  prowl, 
scowl,  etc. 

As  in  boivL     See  Ole. 

OWN. 

As  in  brown.     Rhymes  town,  clown,  crown,  down, 
drowTi,  frown,  gown,  adown,  renown,  embrown,  noun. 
As  in  thrown.     See  One. 

OWSE. 
Bowse,  rouse.    See  OuSE. 
13 


196  THE  RHYMESTER. 

OWTH. 
Growth.     See  0th. 

OWZE. 
Blowze,    browse,    rouse,    spouse,    carouse,    touse, 
espouse,  the  verbs  to  house,  mouse,  etc.,  and  the  plu- 
rals of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  present  tense 
of  verbs  in  Ow. 

OX. 

Ox,  box,  fox,  equinox,  orthodox,  heterodox,  the 
plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  present 
tense  of  verbs  in  OCK. 

OY. 

Boy,  buoy,  coy,  employ,  cloy,  joy,  toy,  alloy,  annoy, 
convoy,  decoy,  destroy,  enjoy,  employ. 

OYNT. 

Aroynt.     See  Oint. 

OYLE. 
Scroyle.     See  Oil. 

OYNE. 
Royne.     See  OiN. 

OZ. 

As  m  poz.     Rhymes  was. 
As  in  coz.     See  Uz. 

OZE. 
See  OSE. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  197 

U 

u. 

See  Ew. 

UB. 
Cub,  club,  dub,  chub,  drub,  grub,  hub,  rub,  snub, 
shrub,  tub. 

UBE. 
Cube,  tube. 

UCE. 
Truce,  sluice,  spruce,  deuce,  conduce,  deduce,  in- 
duce, introduce,  puce,  produce,  seduce,  traduce,  juice, 
reduce,  use,  abuse,  profuse,  abstruse,  disuse,  excuse, 
misuse,  obtuse,  recluse. 

UCH. 

See  Utch. 

UCK. 
Buck,  luck,  pluck,  suck,  struck,  tuck,  truck,  duck. 

UCT. 
Conduct,  deduct,  instruct,  obstruct,  aqueduct.    The 
preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  UCK. 

UD. 
Bud,  scud,  stud,  mud,  cud,   blood,  flood.      \Stids 
rhymes  plurals  of  nouns  and  third   person  present  sin- 
gular of  verbs  in  Ud.] 


198  THE  RHYMESTER. 

UDE. 

Rude,  crude,  prude,  allude,  conclude,  delude,  elude, 
include,  mood,  food,  rood,  illude,  exclude,  exude,  snood, 
include,  intrude,  obtrude,  seclude,  altitude,  fortitude, 
gratitude,  interlude,  latitude,  longitude,  magnitude, 
multitude,  solicitude,  solitude,  vicissitude,  aptitude, 
habitude,  ingratitude,  inaptitude,  lassitude,  plenitude, 
promptitude,  servitude,  similitude,  lewd,  feud,  brood, 
and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Ew,  Ue, 
etc. 

UDGE. 

Judge,  drudge,  grudge,  trudge,  adjudge,  prejudge, 
fudge,  smudge,  nudge,  budge,  sludge. 

UE. 
See  Ew. 

UFF. 
Buff,  cuff,  chuff,  bluff,  huff,  gruff,  luff,  puff,  snuff 
stuff,  ruff,  rebuff,  counterbuff,  rough,  tough,  enough, 
slough  (cast  skin),  chough. 

UFT. 

Tuft  rhymes  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs 
in  Uff. 

UG. 

Lug,  bug,  dug,  drug,  hug,  jug,  rug,  slug,  smug, 
snug,  mug,  shrug,  pug. 

UGUE. 
Fugue,  no  rhyme. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES. 

* 

See  Ule. 

UHL. 

See  Use. 

UICE. 

See  IDE. 

UIDE. 

See  Ild. 

UILD. 

See  ILT. 

UILT. 

See  Int. 

UINT. 

199 


UISE. 

As  in  guise.     See  ISE. 
As  in  bruise.    See  Use. 

UISH. 
Cuish.     See  ISH. 

UIT. 

See  Ute. 

UKE. 
Duke,  puke,  rebuke,  fluke,  chibouque. 

UL,  and  ULL. 
As  in  cull.     RhjTnes  dull,  gull,  hull,  lull,  mull,  null, 
trull,  skull,  annul,  disannul. 

As  xnfull.     Rhymes  wool,  bull,  pull,  bountiful,  fan- 


200  THE  RHYMESTER. 

ciful,  sorrowful,  dutiful,  merciful,  wonderful,  worship- 
rul,  and  every  word  ending  in  ful  having  the  accent  on 
the  ante-penultimate. 

ULCH. 

Mulch,  gulch. 

ULE. 
Mule,  pule.  Yule,  rule,  overrule,  ridicule,  misrule, 
fool,  tool,  buhl.     (Gules,  heraldic  term,  rh>-mes  plural 
of  nouns  and  third  person  singular  present  of  verbs  in 
Ule,  etc.) 

ULF. 

Gulf,  no  rhyme. 

ULGE. 

Bulge,  indulge,  divulge,  etc. 


ULK. 

Bulk,  hulk,  skulk,  sulk. 

ULM. 

Culm,  no  rhyme. 

ULP. 
Gulp,  sculp,  pulp,  ensculp. 

ULSE. 
Pulse,  repulse,  impulse,  expulse,  convulse,  insulse. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  201 

ULT. 

Result,  ad-ult,  exult,  consult,  indult,  occult,  insult, 
difficult,  catapult,  etc. 

UM. 
Crum,  chum,  drum,  glum,  gum,  hum,  mum,  scum, 
plum,  sum,  swum,  thruni,  thumb,  dumb,  succumb, 
come,  become,  overcome,  burdensome,  cumbersome, 
frolicsome,  humorsome,  quarrelsome,  troublesome,  en- 
comium, opium,  crumb. 

UMB. 

See  ilM. 

UME. 
See  OOM. 

UMP. 
Bump,  pump,  jump,  lump,  plump,   rump,  stump, 
trump,  thump,  clump. 

UN. 
Dun,  gun,  nun,  pun,  run,  sun,  shun,  tun,  stun,  spun, 
begun,  son,  won,  ton,  done,  one,  none,  undone,  bun. 

UNCE. 
Dunce,  once. 

UNCH. 
Bunch,    punch,     hunch,    lunch,    munch,    scrunch, 
crunch. 


202  THE   RHYMESTER. 

UNCT. 

Defunct,  disjunct,  rhyme  preterites  and  participles 
of  verbs  in  Unk. 

UND. 
Fund,  refund,  preterites  of  verbs  in  UN. 

UNE. 

June,  tune,  untune,  jejune,  prune,  croon,  hewn, 
swoon,  moon,  soon,  boon,  noon,  spoon,  buffoon,  lam- 
poon, poltroon,  triune,  'coon,  cocoon,  raccoon,  dune, 
shalloon,  dragoon. 

UNG. 

Bung,  clung,  dung,  flung,  hung,  rung,  strung,  sung, 
sprung,  slung,  stung,  swung,  wrung,  unsung,  young, 
tongue,  among. 

UNGE. 
Plunge,  sponge,  expunge. 

UNK. 

Drunk,  bunk,  hunk,  sunk,  shrunk,  stunk,  punk, 
trunk,  slunk,  funk,  chunk,  monk.  (Hunks  rhymes 
plural  of  nouns  and  third  person  singular  present  of 
verbs  in  Unk.) 

UNT. 

Brunt,  blunt,  hunt,  runt,  grunt,  front,  etc.,  and  (.'') 
wont  (to  be  accustomed). 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  203 

UOR. 
See  Ore. 

UP. 

Cup,  sup,  pup,  dup,  up. 

UPT. 
Abrupt,  corrupt,  interrupt,  the  participles  and  pre- 
terites of  verbs  in  Up,  etc. 

UR. 

See  Er. 

URB. 
Curb,  disturb,  verb,  herb. 

URCH. 
Church,  lurch,  birch,  perch,  search,  smirch. 

URD. 

Curd,  absurd,  bird,  gird,  heard,  herd,  sherd,  word, 
and  the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Er,  Ur, 
and  Ir. 

URE. 

Cure,  pure,  dure,  lure,  sure,  abjure,  allure,  assure, 
demure,  conjure,  endure,  manure,  inure,  insure,  imma- 
ture, immure,  mature,  obscure,  procure,  secure,  adjure, 
calenture,  coverture,  epicure,  investiture,  forfeiture,  fur- 
niture, miniature,  nourriture,  overture,  portraiture,  pri- 
mogeniture, temperature,  poor,  moor,  contour,  amour, 
your. 


204  THE  RHYMESTER. 

URF. 
Turf,  scurf,  serf,  surf. 

URGE. 
Purge,  urge,  surge,  scourge,  thaumaturge,  gurge, 
verge,  diverge. 

URK. 
Lurk,  Turk,  work,  irk,  jerk,  perk,  quirk,  mirk. 

URL. 
Churl,  curl,  furl,  hurl,  purl,  uncurl,  unfurl,  whirl, 
earl,  girl,  twirl,  pearl. 

URM. 
See  Erm. 

URN. 

Burn,  churn,  spurn,  turn,  urn,  return,  overturn,  tern, 

discern,  earn,  sojourn,  adjourn,  rejourn. 

URP. 
Usurp,  chirp,  extirp,  discerp, 

URR. 
Purr.     See  Ur. 

URSE. 
See  Erse. 

URST. 

Burst,    curst,    durst,    accurst,    thirst,   worst,    first, 

versed. 

URT. 
See  Ert. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  205 

US,  or  USS. 
Pus,  us,  thus,  buss,  truss,  discuss,  incubus,  over- 
plus, arquebus,  cuss,  amorous,  boisterous,  clamorous, 
credulous,  dangerous,  ungenerous,  generous,  emulous, 
fabulous,  frivolous,  hazardous,  idolatrous,  infamous, 
miraculous,  mischievous,  mountainous,  mutinous,  ne- 
cessitous, numerous,  ominous,  perilous,  poisonous,  pop- 
ulous, prosperous,  ridiculous,  riotous,  ruinous,  scanda- 
lous, scrupulous,  sedulous,  traitorous,  treacherous, 
tyrannous,  venomous,  vigorous,  villanous,  adventurous, 
adulterous,  ambiguous,  blasphemous,  dolorous,  fortu- 
itous, gluttonous,  gratuitous,  incredulous,  lecherous, 
libidinous,  magnanimous,  obstreperous,  odoriferous, 
ponderous,  ravenous,  rigorous,  slanderous,  solicitous, 
timorous,  valorous,  unanimous,  calamitous. 

USE. 

As  in  the  noun  use.  Rhymes  disuse,  abuse,  deuce, 
truce,  sluice,  juice,  loose,  goose,  noose,  moose. 

As  in  7nicse.  Rhymes  the  verb  use,  abuse,  lose, 
choose,  shoes,  amuse,  diffuse,  excuse,  infuse,  misuse, 
peruse,  refuse,  suffuse,  transfuse,  accuse,  bruise,  and 
the  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons  singular  of  verbs 
in  Ew  and  Ue,  etc. 

USH, 

As  in  bbish.     Rhymes  brush,  crush,  gush,  flush, 
rush,  lush,  tush,  frush,  hush. 
As  in  bush.     Rhymes  push. 

USK. 

Busk,  tusk,  dusk,  husk,  musk. 


2o6  THE  RHYMESTER. 

USP. 
Cusp,  no  rhyme. 

UST. 
Bust,  crust,  dust,  just,  must,  lust,  rust,  thrust,  trust, 
adjust,  disgust,  distrust,  intrust,  mistrust,  robust,  un- 
just, the  preterites  and  participles  of  verbs  in  Us,  Uss, 
etc. 

UT,  or  UTT. 
But,  butt,  cut,  hut,  gut,  glut,  jut,  nut,  shut,  strut, 
englut,  rut,  scut,  slut,  smut,  abut,  and  soot  (?). 

UTCH. 
Hutch,  crutch,  Dutch,  much,  such,  touch. 

UTE. 
Brute,  lute,  flute,  mute,  acute,  compute,  confute, 
dispute,  dilute,  depute,  impute,  minute,  pollute,  refute, 
salute,  absolute,  attribute,  contribute,  constitute,  desti- 
tute, dissolute,  execute,  institute,  persecute,  prosecute, 
resolute,  substitute,  fruit,  bruit,  suit,  recruit,  boot,  hoot, 
coot,  shoot,  toot,  soot  (.?). 

UTH. 

As  in  azimuth.     Rhymes  doth. 
As  in  truth.     See  Ooth. 

UX. 

Dux,  crux,  lux,  flux,  reflux.     The  plurals  of  nouns 
and  third  persons  singular  of  verbs  in  UCK. 


DICTIONARY  OF  RHYMES.  207 


Y 

Y. 

See  IE. 

YB. 

Syb.     See  Ib. 

YM. 

Sym.     See  Im. 

YMN. 

Hymn.     See  IM. 

YMPH. 

Nymph,  lymph. 

YN. 

Baudekyn.     See  In. 

YNE. 

Anodyne.     See  INE 

. 

YNX. 

Lynx  rhymes  plurals  of  nouns  and  third  persons 
present  singular  of  verbs  in  Ink. 

YP. 
Gyp,  hyp.     See  I  P. 

YPE. 
Type.     See  Ipe. 

YPH. 
Hieroglyph.    See  Iff. 


2o8  THE  RHYMESTER. 


YPSE. 

Apocalypse. 

See  Ipse. 

See  Ire. 

YRE. 

See  Ur. 

YRRH. 

See  Ism. 

YSM. 

See  1st. 

YST. 

Gyve.     See 

IVE. 

YVE. 

YX. 

Sardonyx,   pyx,   fix,   rhyme   plural    of   nouns    and 
third  persons  singular  present  of  verbs  in  ICK. 

YZE. 
Analyze.     See  ISE. 


THE  END. 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT'S 

POETICAL    WORKS. 


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THE  VERBALIST: 

A  MANUAL 

Devoted   to  Brief  Discussions  of  the  Right  and 

the  Wrong  Use  of  Words,  and  to  some  other 

Matters  of  Interest  to  those  who  would 

Speak  and  Write  -with  Propriety. 

By  ALFRED  AYRES. 


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A    PRONOUNCING  MANUAL, 

Containing   about   Three    Thousand    Five    Hundred 

Words,    including    a    Considerable    Number   of 

the  Names  of  Foreign  Authors,  Artists,  etc., 

that  are  often  mispronounced. 


By  ALFRED  AYRES. 


SELECTIONS   FROM   THE   WORK. 

ab-do'men,  not  ^b'do-men. 

*  .7  • 

ac-crue',  not  -cm'. 

The  orthoepists  agree  that  «,  preceded  by  r  iu  the 
same  syllable,  generally  becomes  simply  oo,  as  in  ruile^ 
rumoi\  rural,  rule,  ruhy. 

al-l6p'a-tliy ;  al-l6p'a-tliist. 
Ar'a-bic,  not  A-ra'bic. 
Asia — a'she-a,  7wt  a'zba. 
ay,  or  aye  (meaning  yes) — i. 
aye  (meaning  alvmys) — a. 
Bis'marck,  not  biz'-. 

At  the  end  of  a  syllable,  s,  in  German,  has  invariably 
its  sharp,  hissing  sound. 

Cairo — in   Egypt,   ki'ro;    in    the   United 

States,  ka'ro. 
Courbet — kor'ba'. 
dec'ade,  not  de-kad'. 

[see  kext  page.] 


THE  OETHOEPTST.— {Continued.) 


de-co'roiis. 

'  The  authority  is  small,  and  is  becoming  less,  for  say- 
ing dea'a-rous,  which  is  really  as  incorrect  as  it  would  be 
to  say  son'o-rous. 

def'i-cit,  7iot  de-fig'it. 
di§-daiii',  not  dis-. 
di2-li5n'or,  not  dis-. 
ec-o-ii5m'i-cal,  or  e-co-u6m'i-cal. 

The  first  is  the  marking  of  a  large  majority  of  the 
orthoepists. 

e-ner'vate. 

The  only  authority  for  saying  en'er-tdte  is  popuiar 
usage;  all  the  orthoepists  say  e-ner'tdte. 

ep'oeh,  7iot  e'p6-eh. 

The  latter  is  a  Websterian  pronunciation,  which  is 
not  even  permitted  in  the  late  editions. 

fin-an-cier'. 

This  much-used  word  is  rarely  pronounced  correctly. 

Hei'ne,  not  hine. 

Final  c  in  German  is  never  silent. 

honest — 6n'est,  not  -ist,  nor  -ust. 

"■Honest  honest  lago,"  is  preferable  to  "honws^,  hon- 
vHt  lago,"  some  of  our  accidental  Othellos  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

i§'o-late,  or  is'o-late,  not  i'so-lat. 

The  first  marking  is  Walker's,  Worcester's,  and 
Smart's ;  the  second,  Webster's. 


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AI  HISTORICAL  EEADEE 


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Classes  in  Academies,  High  Schools,  and 
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